


A Light & His Soul Snatcher

by natigail



Series: Soul Snatcher AU [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Magic, Enemies to Friends, Gen, I made and developed the magic/soul snatcher AU and I quite like it, Light!Phil, M/M, Magic-Users, Opposites Attract, Phil is a child the first time he meets Dan but later they're the same age, Predator/Prey, Soul Snatchers, SoulSnatcher!Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-09-28 07:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10080077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natigail/pseuds/natigail
Summary: Phil was the most powerful magic wielding human of the decade, even when he was just a child. He was what his people called a light - someone that was a pure source of magic. He'd been forbidden to leave his house because his parents were terrified that he'd attract soul snatchers, which was horrible creatures that consumed innocent souls. But Phil was a curious little one and he was bound to step outside eventually.Dan had been a stupid young boy, who'd gotten too obsessed with the magical culture and peer pressured into doing something really dumb, just because all his friends had done it. His soul had been broken and locked away, never to be seen or felt again, as his body was doomed to roam the world as a soul snatcher. But Dan would be granted a second chance.When the two meet, the impossible happens. Lights have always fallen prey to soul snatchers before and Phil should really be dead and Dan should really be fed. It doesn't quite go like that.





	1. Prologue: The Universe & Folklore

**Author's Note:**

> This is just an introduction to get you to understand the magical world this story takes place in.

**The Universe & Folklore**

Those attempting to wield magic but not possessing the proper strength will be ripped apart inside out. It’s a horrible practice originally used to torture people until there was nothing left of them but a shell. It was deemed the worst kind of death to have your soul ripped apart piece by piece. They would be exposed to a pure vein of magic, running through Earth and upon touching it; they’d be broken and corrupted.

The foreign magic would rip through their body, inadvertently breaking everything it touched. Those who were able to wield magic used it to punish those that hunted their kin. It was extremely rare for a coven to agree to that punishment and it didn’t sit well with a lot of them. They were showed just how destructive the power they had access to could be if you did not know how to control it.

There were rituals in place to make sure the shell of the human didn’t come back as a void, which was an entity that fed on the souls of humans, particularly those gifted with magic. The body had to be destroyed meticulously or it would persevere and become everyone’s worst nightmare: a soul snatcher.

Far from all humans were made to bear magic but many longed for it. If you possessed it, you were said to have _glow_. It was this indescribable power that less than five per cent of the population had been granted. No one knew exactly how the magic chose as it didn’t run in bloodlines or preferred specific types of people… or at least it didn’t to the visible eye. Magic always had a reason to granting humans the ability to touch it.

Decades had passed and the punishment rituals became a thing of myth and only a select few were even aware of it. Despite of it, soul snatchers where growing in numbers due to “unexplainable” reasons. However, if one were to think carefully, they should look no further than humanity’s curiosity and innate thirst for power combined with a lack of information.

Some humans became convinced that they could obtain the ability to wield magic by finding the pure sources of it. The rumours of the Earth’s veins of magic were subject of much folklore and they were hard to find but unfortunately not impossible. It would become the culture amongst young men that touching a vein of magic was a test of their manhood.

Those granted magic bearing abilities from birth would be fine, albeit overwhelmed. Those who hadn’t would have their soul torn from them in the worst way possible. Even if you were only exposed for a second, any direct contact would cause the magic to take hold within you and slowly rip you apart.

Thankfully, most people could not find the magic veins but for those who did, it was a terrible fate. They could be fine for a few days before their body finally began to show the signs and break down. People started to blame the magic wielding population for putting curses on their children and the truce between those with _glow_ and those without it threatened to end.

That’s the problem when you forget about your history. Terrible events will unfold if you’re not mindful and willing to learn from those who came before you.

The number of soul snatchers was rising and since the infected people seemingly vanished into thin air – at first before coming back as shells of their former selves – no one was able to make the connection. They could not die, unless starved from souls for months on end, and they would continue to roam free otherwise.

A gruesome fate began to settle over the cities and villages; especially those located near the veins of magic. Soul snatchers were driven to claim new souls to remain “alive” and the human body – no matter how much was left at this point – always did everything it could to survive. One couldn’t say that humans weren’t stubborn bastards.

The newer generation of magic wielding humans didn’t know a lot about their history nor did they get to join a coven, all of which had been disbanded. There was no way to predict who would be gifted with _glow_ and thus there wasn’t any ways to track them down now that everyone was in hiding. Parents would tell their children to keep their gifts hidden, out of fear both from soul snatchers and vicious-minded non-magic humans.

The children grew into adults without embracing their abilities and stayed away from magic as they best could. It was a difficult and painful life for them for the magic would always call out to them whenever it moved near. The purest from ran in the veins of Earth but even a breeze could carry magic. Slowly, magic turned into something to fear and hide from again.

Most magic wielding humans were only born with a spark of it in them. The _glow_ would be subtle and almost impossible to sense at first but as the baby grew to a child, the magic in them would go from a tiny flicker of a spark to a steadier glow. The _glow_ would only enhance if the human practiced and embraced it.

However, once in a while someone would be born with more of it. Sometimes, a baby would come out of the womb accompanied by golden light. It only happened once every century or so but it was a glorious sight to behold.

The child’s soft skin would sparkle ever so slightly and the light in their eyes would be enough to blind you if you stared at it for too long. Everyone who touched them while they were in their vulnerable early stage would be able to feel the hum of magic emitting from them and sometimes it would even seep out ever so slightly.

A child like that was called a _light_ and when they had been born back in the day, coven members would have gathered around it to protect said child with all their might. A child with such a strong magic gift could and often did make history. It was a _light,_ who finally ended the war on magic and those who possessed it after a nearly a century of war.

The time Philip was born was simultaneously a horrible time for a _light_ to come into the world and the time when it was needed most. His mother had given birth at home with only the midwife, her husband and their older son present, which was probably what saved him from being killed instantly.

People were scared of magic and many non-magic humans formed conspiracies that soul snatchers were under the control of magic humans. No one at that time knew the true origin of the creatures with black eyes. It was fear and foolishness talking but everyone would rather run with gossip than go back to study in the old books or listen to the few magic-wielding humans, who didn’t hide what they were. Granted, almost everyone did hide it because if you did not, it was only a matter of time before you’d be convicted of a crime and beheaded.

But Philip was a lucky child, a common trait for _lights_ , and his midwife was secretly magic and his parents loved him enough not to reject him for the power that hummed from the deepest parts of his tiny baby body.

It is with Philip that our story begins, three decades after the truce were initiated and with war wishes hung in the air as the population was being severely reduced by soul snatchers. Philip was but a young child when he did what none before him, even _lights_ , had done. _Lights_ inherently had a lot of enemies, magic haters and soul snatchers, and no one had ever been born to a world with so many of the latter roaming. The last thing anyone expected was for a _light_ to be able to walk away from an encounter with a soul snatcher. But then again, Philip was a special snowflake.

 

[Reblog on Tumblr](http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com/post/157993304372/a-light-his-soul-snatcher-prologue)


	2. Part 1: The Child Who Said Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil is just a curious child, who wants to leave his house for the first time. The outside world of wonders and magic is calling to him but he doesn't know that soul snatcher Dan is lurking in the shadows, ready to attack and end the young boy's life.

**The Child Who Said Light**

On one hand his parents had a hell raising Philip, Phil for short, and on the other he was the easiest child in the world. He was always happy and bright and just being around him made his parents so blissful. But they could not let anyone know about him.

Neither of his parents nor his older brother had an inkling of magic in them. As Phil began being able to speak and grew more curious, he kept asking why.

He couldn’t grasp how they could not feel like he did, though he could not explain how exactly he felt. He just knew he felt happy and warm, all the time and he couldn’t understand why his skin would glow when the rest of his family was so pale.

He didn’t leave the house much but he was a content child and he found his own ways to play. Granted, his playing almost always included moving objects with his mind but at least he stayed inside, protected and out of sight.

Soul snatchers could not come into homes that much was known to all the citizens. No one was quite clear on the why but if a someone lived in a space and left their traces there, the soul snatcher could not go near it.

But as Phil graduated from crawling to walking to running, he only became more of a handful to handle. He wanted to go outside. He wanted to talk to people and go to school like his brother Martyn did. He had been shouted at multiple times whenever he tried to make it for the door.

At his latest attempt, he could hear the sheer panic in his mother’s voice as she scooped him up into her arms and held him tightly as if he might vanish if she let go. Phil hugged her back tightly letting his warmth comfort her, like he knew how to do instinctively.

“You cannot go outside, Philip,” his mother said once she set him down. “It’s not safe for you out there.”

“Why?”

He couldn’t grasp it. Martyn was outside just now as was his father. If it was not safe then why were they outside? His young brain could think it but he did not yet have the capabilities to express himself to his mother, despite his strong _glow_ making him smarter than kids his age.

“There are bad things out there, my love. Bad things that want to hurt you. You’re so special and if people see what you can do…”

“Flying toys?” Phil asked because he’d heard something like this before. He would always be scolded when he made his toys fly around the room but it was so much fun and he didn’t let a scolding hinder him from repeating it the following day.

“Yes, stuff like that,” his mother continued, her smile sad as she reached up to cup his cheek. “People can’t see you do that. You have to stay inside, okay? Do you understand?”

Phil didn’t understand. It didn’t make any sense. He didn’t know that he was so radically different from everyone around him. He knew that he didn’t feel a strong warm hum from his family members like the one within himself but he was sure he just couldn’t feel theirs or maybe they hadn’t gotten it yet. Phil wished for it to come soon because it was the most wonderful thing in the world and he wanted that for his family.

“Phil, do you understand?” his mother repeated.

Phil nodded because he knew it would get his mother to stop looking at him like that. He didn’t like how her worried eyes made him feel and he reached forward to cling to her with his chubby arms and tried to calm her down.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she muttered into her son’s ginger blond hair.

Phil didn’t understand what she meant by that. He was right here. He had been planning on coming back after he’d explored the big, vast world. He just wanted to see what went on outside the walls.

He restrained himself for weeks after that chat with his mother. Everything remained normal; he’d always have someone at home either his parents or Carly. Carly had been here always, as far as Phil remembered and she had a light hum emitting from her. It felt very different from the one at his core but he liked when she visited.

“Why can’t I go outside?” Phil asked her once they were alone.

She looked worried and tense and then she let her shoulders drop and breathed out.

“It’s because it’s a dangerous world, Phil. For you more so than anyone else.”

“Why? Because of my light?” Phil pressed on.

He had resulted to calling with hum in his chest, the glow on his skin and the warm from his veins “light”. He wasn’t sure when it had happened but it made perfect sense.

“Did you know that was the first word you ever spoke?” Carly said, ignoring his question, which Phil didn’t like one bit. “For a long time all you’d say was “light”. It was fitting really. You were a bucket of sunshine ever since I helped bring you into this world.”

Phil didn’t care about the story Carly was telling. He wanted answers.

“You have a light. You go outside.”

Carly tensed visibly and her eyes flickered around the room worriedly. She crouched down to meet Phil at his level and lowered her voice.

“My light is very different from yours, my sweet little sunshine boy. You are the brightest boy I’ve ever known, Phil. People aren’t kind to someone, who outshines them like that. You have to stay here.”

“For how long?” Phil exclaimed.

He already felt the days drag on and on. He wanted to go outside. No, he needed to go outside. There was something out there and it was almost as if it was beaconing him. He needed to figure out what was calling out to him. He didn’t understand it but he knew he needed to go, as far and for a long as his tiny legs would carry him.

“I don’t know,” Carly answered, her voice breaking. She pulled Phil half onto her lap and hugged him tightly and Phil felt a dull warmth on his already warm skin. Carly was trying to do what Phil always did to his mother when she was freaking out. Phil closed his eyes and hugged her back and suddenly the warmth between them rose tenfold.

It was a couple of more weeks before Phil finally did it. His father had been home at the time but he was ill and in bed. Phil had tried to go to him and take his hand to comfort him but his father had told him to leave. He’d seemed scared by Phil attempting to touch him and it hurt. His mother would always touch and hold him and even his brother to some extend but his father was never much for any physical contact with Phil.

“I just need some sleep, Phil. I’m sorry. Could you go play with your toys in your room?” his father said, his voice much kinder now.

Phil nodded and intended to walk back to his room. However, as he left his parents’ bedroom he found himself drifting towards a door that didn’t lead to the bedroom he shared with Martyn.

The front door looked scary and all the locks on it looked heavy and difficult. He pressed his palm to the wood and just relished in the feeling of being able to finally touch the door at least. He wanted to know the world that lay behind it.

A flash of light erupted from his palm and the door swung open despite the multiple locks that should have kept it in place.

His eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. He’d glanced out the windows a lot but it was different seeing it when it wasn’t obscured through tinted glass. Phil took a step forward.

The air seemed fresher and cleaner out here. And the wonderful smells that lingered in the air. He took another step.

Before realising fully what he was doing, Phil was walking down the gravel road outside of his house. A man from across the street stared at him and Phil raised his hand and waved in greeting, which the man reciprocated, if not a little hesitantly.

Phil could feel the hum of people towards his right; some of the silhouettes he could spy in the distance had a hidden light like Carly. Phil wanted to go and explore and meet all the kids Martyn had been talking about at home but something stopped him. Off to his left the street winded down and a path lay forward into a patch of trees. Phil reasoned that it must be the forest that his brother had told him of once.

The pulse of people to his right was overwhelmed by the almost magnetic pull he felt to his left. He went left without thinking about it. He’d always listened to his light and he was sure it wasn’t leading him anywhere bad.

He walked into the forest, looking around with wonder in his eyes. Once he left behind the houses and were surrounded by trees either side, several creatures came out to greet him. He had a book of animals at home and he tried to remember all their names. They looked so much prettier in real life.

He’d made friends with a couple of birds, who’d come visit him when his parents allowed the window to be open. But this could be a whole new array of friends.

“Deer. Rabbit. Bird. Fox. Squirrel,” Phil said and pointed at the animals as he kept walking. They all followed him at a safe distance but Phil was just happy for the company. He kept moving forward, not knowing where he was headed but feeling the pull within his soul guiding him.

He knew what had been calling out to him all this time when he saw it. Nothing more than a sliver was visible but Phil instinctively knew that the soft golden light from within a very old tree’s upheaved root was the same thing that was inside of him.

The animals drew back once he neared the vein of magic. They were always fearful of areas seeped in magic and the kind of things it attracted. Magic wielding humans were the most common things but over the past decade another enemy had taken to linger by the magic; soul snatchers. They knew magic humans would feel the pull to come to such a place and magic souls were their preferred meals over non-magic ones.

Phil had been both unlucky and lucky to choose this time to leave his house and go explore the forest. There was always soul snatchers lingering by exposed veins and today was no exception. Later, it would be debated in the history books if the outcome had been different if it had not been this particular soul snatcher that happened upon Phil.

Some would argue that it _did_ matter and any other one would have gobbled up the child instantly. Others remained in the firm belief that no soul snatcher would have been able to do that to the Great Philip “Light” Lester.

It was a relatively young soul snatcher, who had been known by the name Dan when he had been human. He’d been but a foolish boy, trying to fit in with his friends, when he’d sealed his fate as someone would crave souls while never regaining his own.

It sensed the _glow_ from its hiding spot long before anything appeared. At first, it thought it had been mistaken or dreaming because the _glow_ just kept coming closer and closer, constantly growing in power. It was practically drooling, if soul snatchers had been able to drool. It had been too long since it last fed and it waited impatiently.

It took way too long before its pray finally came into view. He had expected an elderly man, judging from the sheer force of the power. It had thought it might be an old soul ready to leave this life. Magic humans would often come to the veins of magic when they could feel they were wasting away and needed to feel the surge of power one final time before they died or they were foolish teenagers that just had to follow the silent pull within them.

This one was neither. It was but a kid; a tiny, round-faced kid.

No child should be able to carry magic like that within them. Children were only born with a spark, which still made them delicious as well as unable to properly defend themselves. They were the preferred meal of any soul snatcher.

But they should not feel like they processed magic matching the most powerful Elders. It was simply wrong and it made the soul snatcher remain in the hidden position, delaying its attack though its body told it to spring forward and claim the soul that presented itself like an easy pray.

Contrary to popular belief, becoming a soul snatcher didn’t make one completely void of everything. Emotions and such were gone for sure but some traits would remain in the shells, a painful reminder of how they had ones been full of life and been able to feel, at least feel something other than an innate need to snatch souls, which was what ruled them most of the time. Back when the soul snatcher had been Dan, so innocent, young and human, it had been smart if not a bit pliable. The memories of resisting touching the exposed vein would haunt it forever.

Dan had been so close to avoid this limbo of a life.

“Bird,” the tiny child called out and his voice sent ripples through the soul snatcher, who gulped.

The soul snatcher didn’t know what was going on but whatever the child had emitted, it felt weird. Let alone the fact that he’d been able to recall the memories and regret of his last human moments were odd. They’d come in flashes every now and again but they never lingered like this normally.

The soul snatcher knew he should just jump out already and claim the soul emitting such a strong _glow_ that the little boy’s skin was actually illuminated. Still, he hesitated, almost afraid to take on this kind of powerful magic.

It felt like a trick, but soon enough his animalistic need to feed drove him to leap into attack.

Phil had not been paying attention to anything. He’d been too preoccupied with standing next to the pure magic and feeling how the air around them seemed to vibrate. He wanted someone to view it with him and called out for his bird friends but he couldn’t see anyone. It was odd because he was sure he could feel someone near by.

He was so pleased that he’d been able to find this wonderful place and couldn’t wait to show Martyn and his parents. Surely, this might make them understand how Phil felt inside but couldn’t quite explain. He was overjoyed.

He didn’t hear the rustling of leaves but he did feel the swish of air as something jumped toward him with incredibly speed. As Phil turned, it was like time slowed down. Maybe it did. Phil had done that by accident a couple of times, as he saw what had lunged at him.

It was a man, Phil thought at first, but something seemed eerily wrong about him. His skin was pale, paler than his mother’s, and his clothes all too dark. His pitch black hair seemed to match perfectly with the dark tattered robes he wore. What scared Phil was the complete lack of expression on the man’s face. His eyes were closed as he moved through the air oddly slow as Phil studied him. The odd man looked much younger than his Dad despite looking quite taller than him.

The man was still moving, albeit slowly, and now his eyes opened. They were a complete void of colour. Phil had never seen a black like that. It was like everything had been sucked out of the area and there was literally nothing left.

Phil felt sadness and despair emitting from the creature, which vibrated weirdly in a way that was very different from the way Phil hummed. Phil watched the face intensely as it moved ever so closer. Something told Phil that he should be scared right now.

His human survival instincts were screaming at him to run away immediately. But right there, next to an exposed vein of magic, he was able to hear his inner light speaking much more clearly and it didn’t tell him to run.

The magic within him was not scared of soul snatchers. It was the thing that accidentally created them. Not that Phil knew that.

So Phil watched as the man’s leap began to turn back to normal speed gradually before Phil felt himself knocked flat on his back as a weight landed on him.

Something still felt so off, as the soul snatcher took the attack jump. It wouldn’t have taken more than a second, if not less, to cover the small jump but it felt like it had taken much longer and it threw him off.

Still, the buzzing pure and strong energy from the human beneath him was very real and enough to refocus him. He’d be able to live off that kind of energy for months, if not a whole year.

He’d grabbed the child by the shoulders as they fell and he was now hovering over him. The soul snatcher was about to move his hands to the middle of the magic human’s chest and extract the soul but something stopped him.

The bluest eyes he’d ever seen, as a human or as a soul snatcher, was staring back up at him. The face was so innocent and pure and magic practically leaked out of the child’s skin, seeping into the hands of the soul snatcher from the contact his hands made with the boy’s shoulders.

There was something odd in the air. The soul snatcher usually didn’t notice it, despite having camped out by the exposed vein enough times. He could feel the hum of magic all around him but this magic wasn’t like the pure nature magic. This was a controlled magic from one particular being and it was happy magic.

“Who are you?” the boy asked, his eyes widened with wonder.

Phil had never seen anything like whatever this man was. He felt the odd aura around him and it only intrigued Phil to meet someone, who wasn’t quite normal like the rest of his family. His mother always told him how he was different and special. He wanted to meet more people who were different and special.

It was difficult to explain but while Phil’s light made him hum, feel warm and glow, the man seemed cold and stealing from the air rather than adding to it. Phil stared at the black eyes, still completely fascinated by them. He didn’t even know people’s eyes could be that black.

The soul snatcher had not expected the boy to talk to him, especially not with a steady voice that did not carry a sliver of fear. He never talked to his victims; he just grabbed them and snatched their soul. He left the bodies where he found them. He didn’t care what happened to the soulless shells.

“Do you have a light too?” Phil asked instead, as the man seemed unable to answer his first question. Phil didn’t blame him, he never felt comfortable answering a question if he didn’t know the answer.

The soul snatcher gulped and for a moment he felt like Dan again. He felt confused and backed into a corner that he didn’t know how to get out of. He had heard that word before. _Light_. He had been a bit of a nerd while he was a human and he’d been obsessed with magic and its abilities.

Something in the back of his mind told him that he had the information stored away, but he would never be able to properly access anything from his past life. He didn’t get that luxury. He had to live like an emotional and impersonal void for the rest of his time.

“Can you speak?” the boy asked now, his voice still patient and happy.

Phil wanted to ask the man to move but he seemed frightened by something. He wasn’t answering any of Phil’s questions but he looked like he might start crying any moment. Phil wanted to comfort the man, for as strange as he was, Phil did not want anyone to suffer.

Without thinking, Phil lifted his right hand and gently brushed his fingertips on the pale cold cheek of the man poised above him with a firm grip on his shoulders.

The soul snatcher had been too lost in his own thoughts, if you could even call them that when you didn’t have a soul anymore, to notice that the boy moved under him. He registered the movement in the boy’s arm too late and suddenly something was stinging his cheek.

When Phil’s fingertips made contact with the cheek, sparks seemed to fly and give him a tiny jolt. It must have been much worse on the other end because the man sprung back, yelped in something resembling pain.

Phil plopped himself up on his elbows as he watched the strange man, now standing a few feet away.

Dan had not been expecting that, whatever the hell that was. He’d trapped magic humans before and they had gotten hold of his arm on the odd occasion but their contact felt nothing like this.

That boy seemed like pure magic, like he was his very own vein from Earth, just one that was able to walk and talk. Upon the contact, Dan felt his ravenous need quenched somewhat. He shook his head violently.

Something was wrong. There were too many things in his head. Thoughts? They buzzed with a need to be acknowledged. Feelings? Dan could hardly breathe anymore.

“I’m sorry,” Phil said and got up properly and started walking towards the man. He towered over Phil with his lanky body and Phil desperately wanted the man to crouch down onto his level so he could apologise properly.

His light had done something to the man that had hurt him. Phil had never seen his light hurt anyone before but he desperately wanted to correct it. He had not meant to shock the man with the dark eyes.

“It’s okay.”

A voice. His voice. Dan’s eyes widened in surprise and astonishment. He hadn’t been able to speak for years, not since he’d “died”. His body convulsed at all these new sensations. He was a soulless body and they could not contain all the human emotions that seemed to insist on erupting within him. Souls were precious and they kept you in control.

“I’m very sorry,” the boy continued, but now he had a smile on face.

So the man did speak, Phil thought to himself, and he was quite pleased to be talking with a new friend.

“I’m Phil, what’s your name?”

Dan felt increasingly like clawing out his eyeballs but then the boy spoke up again and things settled a bit within him.

“Dan,” the soul snatcher said but the name felt wrong and foreign on his lips. He shouldn’t have a name. He lost that along with his soul and his ability to speak. Something was seriously wrong about that boy. He knew he shouldn’t have been messing about with magic that powerful.

“Pleased to meet you,” Phil said and reached out his hand like he’d seen his father do before when he greeted people and Phil would sneak a peak out of his room to observe the arriving guests. Phil wanted to be polite and properly greet his new friend.

“Sorry,” Dan said, his voice still sounding rough but he found it increasingly easier to speak with every word. After having been mute for years, it felt wonderful to speak. “I shouldn’t.”

“Is it because I shocked you? I didn’t mean to!” the boy exclaimed earnestly, which seemed to make the air around them vibrate.

“Okay! Calm down,” Dan said waving his hands around. He was feeling more and more human by the moment but his body was convulsing internally rejecting all the things that did not belong to him anymore.

“Who are you?” Phil asked. He was scared that he was making a terrible first impression on his new friend and that he’d never be able to make one if he failed miserably at his first try.

“I’m a soul snatcher,” Dan found himself answering honestly but the mere word sent shudders down his spine. He shouldn’t be able to speak about what he was.

All this was so wrong.

He should move away from this magical child. He could already feel the effect of the touch pulsing on his cheek but it was definitely fading, though very slowly. If he moved away, he’d surely go back to “normal”, back to the way he was supposed to be.

He found himself unable to do it. He couldn’t move due to a combination of wonder and stubbornness and willingness to prolong this human moment for as long as possible.

“What’s that? Are you like me?” the boy asked, his voice curious and not laced with any type of suspicion.

The boy was so innocent and pure and it made Dan’s heart ache. He wasn’t sure how that was even possible and the feeling startled him at first. He’d not felt any emotion for so long. Humans usually fled at the sight of him but the child was looking at him with trust and interest in his blue eyes.

“No,” Dan said.

He was the opposite of this wonderful golden child. He was a void that ate but never became satisfied. This boy was exuding power and happiness and never seemed like he would hurt anything, even if his life depended on it.

“Do you want a hug?” the boy asked, once again surprising Dan with his questions.

“We shouldn’t,” Dan said firmly. He still felt the crackle of residual magic on his cheek. He loved being able to actually use his voice again and it made him feel… sad knowing he’d be losing it soon.

Whether he consumed the child or simply left, he’d no longer be experiencing this odd enhanced limbo between life and death.

“Why not?” Phil demanded to know. He was tried of not getting any answers. He wanted to know why the strange man didn’t want Phil to help him. Phil knew he could help. He could push love, comfort and happiness into the tall young man.

“Because I take souls, Phil,” the man exclaimed and suddenly closed the distance he’d been holding ever since he sprung to his feet. He moved close enough to touch Phil if he wanted to but his hands remained firmly at his side.

“I don’t understand,” Phil said honestly. What were souls?

The tall man was growing increasingly irritated by the look of it.

“I take humans’ life force and I consume it. It’s how I stay alive, though I wouldn’t say I’m alive because I’m technically dead. You must have heard about us! I hear the whispers coming from the village. We’re the monsters that they warn you about, Phil. We kill people and we have a particular fondness for young children with magic in them. Someone exactly like you. I have to consume and kill you!”

Dan was a mess of newly arrived emotions; all the while his body was trying to tear him apart from the inside. Whatever was in Phil’s touch, it had poured some soul into Dan in the oddest way possible.

Usually when he consumed souls, he’d just go hibernate for a while, the type of soul dictated how long he’d slumber for. He should snatch onto Phil and pry that beautiful golden essence from him. He knew it would feel so good to rip it from his tiny and fragile body and it would be so long before he’d go hungry again.

He couldn’t make himself do it. All the things in his head was confusing and distracting him.

Phil gulped at the exclamation. He didn’t want to die. As far as he gathered, once you died you didn’t get to come back. He had so much left of the world to see. He’d only just made it outside today and he was not ready to give it up.

Still, Dan was apparently dead and he seemed okay. The internal void in his chest was a bit worrying, but he seemed okay otherwise.

“You don’t have to kill me. You don’t have to hurt anyone,” Phil said simply and Dan almost wanted to laugh at his sincere tone. As if saying it out loud made it so. Dan didn’t know. Maybe that was the case with powers like Phil’s. When was the last time he’d even thought about laughing?

Years. Years of snatching souls, being mute and numb.

“It’s what my kind do, Phil,” Dan said, his voice and body tired of the turmoil going on inside his body and mind. He longed for the peace and quiet but he couldn’t just leave.

All desire to kill Phil and snatch his soul had magically drained away by now but if Dan left he knew it would only be a matter of moments before another soul snatcher would happen upon him.

Dan’s dark aura shielded them but Phil was like a goddamn lighthouse, practically begging everyone to come consume him. His power was so pure and alluring and had Dan not been inherently analytical and careful, he’d have jumped in with both feet.

He wasn’t sure if he would have been ripped apart trying to consume Phil’s soul. Maybe. It would probably have been better than whatever was happening inside of his body now.

“You can’t stay out here. It’s dangerous,” Dan said and this time he actually chuckled at the irony of it all. The subtle laughter startled his body and he jerked forward. It was trying to reject everything human emotion trying to take hold inside of him.

“You are not okay, Dan,” Phil said, mimicking the voice his mother had used when Martyn wanted to go on a play date, despite having a high fever.

“Just leave it, Phil. I’m literally not worth your breath. I have none of my own. I’m not even sure if you fully understand what I’m saying. You’re practically just a baby. You need to get home to your parents. I don’t know what you did to me but I wouldn’t count on it saving you a second time. Go home and be safe.”

Phil felt angry at Dan’s comment about him not understanding. Yes, he was just a kid but he was extremely smart and he was following along pretty well. Dan thought he was something evil that needed to kill people but Phil could not believe that. His mother always told him that you had a choice of who you wanted to be.

“I do understand,” Phil huffed. “And I didn’t do anything to you.”

Dan almost laughed again. Was this what having emotions felt like? It was weird and overwhelming after having been void of them for so long but they also felt oddly familiar.

“Phil, I could not talk before you touched me. We’re not supposed to be able to talk. We’re not supposed to feel any of the things that are raging war inside my body right now. I’ll be completely honest with you. You will die out here if you don’t get home, Phil. You are a beam of sunshine in a sea of grey and envious people. Even if you manage to ward off every soul snatcher, some of your fellow humans will get you. You demand to be watched and it will get you killed before you reach ten.”

Phil almost recoiled at Dan’s words. The tall man, who was looking increasingly more like a boy with every vulnerable moment, was clearly not feeling well. Phil could not believe that his touch alone would make someone speak but he didn’t understand what the light inside of him was capable of. And Phil believed that Dan thought he was telling the truth when he said that Phil wouldn’t grow up to become an adult.

Dan felt something begin to click back into place inside him and his thoughts and emotions went banished to the dark corner of his mind that he couldn’t reach properly. The hunger flooded through him anew, almost feverish now that it had a meal dangled in front of it for who knows how long. Dan had lost track of time.

“What’s wrong?” Phil asked as Dan’s expression shifted.

Dan would be gone soon and the soul snatcher would be all that remained again. There would be a shadow of Dan here and there but he’d be shoved away. Dan found this whole experience overwhelming but fantastic as the same time.

He’d been able to speak; he’d felt his emotions and he’d been able to think. Some residue of his soul had to have lingered inside his body, though he’d never been able to reach it on his own.

“Phil, I’m losing control. You need to run, I will consume you and you will die,” Dan said, words being more and more difficult now as his vocal cords tried to close back up again.

Phil wasn’t willing to accept that one bit.

“No, I’m sure I can help you,” the boy said, his voice gentle as ever.

“You can’t touch me, Phil. I’m not made to bear your goodness. I wasn’t even made to bear magic, which is what got me like this in the first place. You have to go!”

Dan stepped back as he felt the rest of his broken pieces snap back together. Phil’s touch had worn off now and the temporary warmth drained from him. The soul snatcher didn’t get to miss it because with the fraction of humanity remaining within it buried deep down all was focused on one thing, the meal in front of it.

“Dan,” Phil said as the tall creature stepped forwards and Phil had trouble locating his new friend in this man before him. There were no subtle lines around the mouth daring to turn into a smile or his voice always speaking the truth.

Something did stir inside of the creature upon the mention of that name. Instinct tried to bury the human part away, to be the best hunter possible and fulfil its need, but it had only been moments before that the human part had been allowed full control. It was something that wasn’t supposed to happen to soul snatchers, it should have been impossible.

One element of Dan’s humanity remained in the void and it was perhaps the most unlikely part. When Dan had been forced away, locked away in a cage he couldn’t get out of, he’d clung to one single thought in his desperation.

It wasn’t to keep access to his memories, keep his voice or anything selfish like that. He had wanted to protect Phil, the golden boy who gave him a moment of carefreeness and laughter in a “life” deemed to be a soulless predator.

The soul snatcher forced Phil to fall on his back and sat over him, much like it had before Phil reached up to touch its cheek.

Phil watched in awe at the transformation in front of him. The whole demeanour of Dan changed before his very eyes and once again he was cold and closed off. Still, Phil had complete faith in his magic and he didn’t protest when he was knocked backwards.

It’s a dangerous thing to have complete faith in others or your own abilities for that matter. However, Phil was one lucky boy.

The soul snatcher placed its hands on the boy’s chest and pressed its palms down roughly.

Phil winced in pain and for the first time since he had left his house he felt worried. Something tugged at his light, warning him that this was not a good situation and suddenly he also became aware of his human survival instincts, which had been screaming at him this whole time.

It was ready to take his soul, it had the channels open and despite being more powerful that should be possible the boy had hardly struggled. It was easy, too easy and that tiny worry allowed Dan to regain a shred of control.

The reason soul snatchers were so attracted to Phil was because of his burning light and it would continue to attract the wrong kind of attention for a long as he lived. He’d never be safe as long as he looked like a miniature sun in human form.

But if something could dull the shine, just a tad, mask it so to speak, then Phil would be safe. Dan wasn’t sure exactly how his dark aura worked but he did know that it kept away other soul snatchers while he was hunting and feeding. If only he was able to transfer some of that to Phil.

His palms flat on Phil’s chest, he felt himself allowed to regain control momentarily.

Phil saw that change in the other’s expression, however faint it was, and his friend smiled down at him. He almost spoke up but there was something sombre about the tall boy’s expression. He looked like he wanted to speak. Phil moved his hands to place over Dan’s, which were still laying flat on his chest.

“You can’t keep doing that,” Dan’s voice came out all raspy, just like when he’d first used it last time. “I’m sorry, Phil. But I can’t bear this. I’m not made for this anymore but you…”

Dan trailed off, pleased to be granted his voice again, even if it did stir up a large amount of pain in his body.

“You can’t be _glowing_ like that, Phil. You’ll never survive and I want you to survive. I want you to be able to grow up because I think you’ll be wonderful,” Dan was rambling now but he was going to take every opportunity to use his voice. He was fairly certain this would be his last chance. Ever.

His body felt like it was failing him. It was almost on par with how it had felt to have pure magic jolt through his body. He would not make it through this, at least not with the Dan part intact. He had no doubt that his soul snatching body would probably persevere somehow.

“Dan, I can help if you just…” Phil tried to speak because Dan’s eyes weren’t just scary orbs of dark abyss anymore. They were genuinely scared and it looked horrible on him.

“I’ll try to give you some of my masking aura, Phil. I don’t know if it’ll work but I can’t do anything else. You’ve brought me back to life, however brief it was, and I have to do all I can to make sure you get to live yours.”

Phil opened his mouth to protest but something twitched in his chest, painful and foreign and it demanded all of his attention. At first, he worried it was his soul ripping out like Dan had warned him he would do but it didn’t felt like something was being taken, more like something was being handed over.

The soul-sucking monster hovering over him was giving instead of taking and its interests were completely pure. It was a moment that would become legendary.

Dan wasn’t sure how to do it but instead of instinctively draining from Phil, like his body told him to do, he pushed instead. He pushed with all his might, trying to give Phil some of the shadows Dan carried so that the young boy could use them to hide.

It broke Dan’s heart a bit to know he was obscuring something so pure and perfect but he knew how this world worked. He had been so damn close to ripping out Phil’s soul, on multiple occasions, and he couldn’t allow that to happen to that ray of sunshine. So he had to hide it away, to make Phil look more ordinary though Dan doubted Phil could ever look normal when he was so beautiful.

Dan only stopped when his hands were shaking too much. He fell down beside of Phil and rolled over on his back, breathing hard. He expected his mind to be pushed back to his locked corner but he remained present. He turned his head to look at Phil.

He was still the same beautiful boy and his eyes were still the bluest Dan had ever seen but his skin had stopped glowing entirely and his blond ginger hair had turned completely black to match Dan’s.

Phil felt scared and confused.

Dan felt exhausted and broken.

He couldn’t even be a proper soul snatcher. He was truly a failure at everything he did but he felt content that Phil looked less like the powerful almighty and more like a normal magic human child. The hum within Phil was still there and still as strong but it was almost undetectable unless you listened very carefully.

Dan used the remainder of his worn power to teleport to a safe spot, like he would have done if he’d consumed a soul. There were spaces where his body just knew how to get there when he needed to rest.

And boy did he need a rest. His entire body still felt like it was on fire and his mind was a complete mess. Right now, he just needed to rest. He had no doubt that he’d be back to being a proper soul snatcher by the time he woke up and all reminders of his humanity would be eradicated forever.

He could feel his human parts buzzing and being tampered with. He was willing to lose them if it had helped that golden child. Then he had at least managed to do one thing right before losing all of himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of that? I really enjoyed writing young, precious, pure and innocent Phil. He was basically the only person who'd be able to draw out the last remnants of Dan's lost soul, even if it was accidental and a painful process. Next chapter we'll be meeting an older version of Phil and I hope you're ready for them to meet all over again - properly this time.
> 
> Let me know what you thought in the comment section below or message me on Tumblr @natigail.


	3. Part 2: The Soul Snatcher Healed With Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan wakes up in excruciating pain and he feels wrong, too far removed from the soulless killing machine he should be, and as he attempt to hunt like he normally would, he suddenly remember what happened before he went to slumber. The golden child, Phil. He has to find him.

**The Soul Snatcher healed with Magic**

Dan’s eyes snapped open and instantly, he knew something was wrong. He was aching all over his body, which had never happened coming out of a rest before. He couldn’t understand what was going on and shivers went through his body.

He was in pain, which shouldn’t even be possible.

He was a ruthless killing machine, destined to consume souls to continue roaming in this non-alive way that he’d been condemned to because of his own stupidity. Soul snatchers weren’t supposed to feel sore when they woke up after a rest. They were supposed to feel ravenous and instantly on the prowl.

Had Dan not been so distracted by his newfound aches, he might have noticed how his hunger wasn’t acting normal either.

The soul snatcher looked down at his hands and the length of his body as if that might give him some clue to what was going on but he still saw the same tattered robes that he always wore. It was some mutated form of the clothes he’d been wearing when he’d touched the vein of magic, except they melted together to one mass that always clung to his body. All soul snatchers were the same.

Dan also felt worried, even boarding on scared because he was never thinking this much. He was never able to access memories from his past like this, causally like a human would. Breathing seemed more difficult the more he thought it and he felt like he was shaking.

Something was so wrong with this whole thing and Dan couldn’t understand what had been going on.

He’d fed almost a dozen times over his relative short “life” as a soul snatcher and coming back had never felt like this. Had something different happened when he’d fed?

He never got to retrain too much memory of an attack, not until he was hunting down his next one and he’d be able to access the information to do a more efficient job each time. The only logical thing was to go on the hunt again.

Dan’s body knew how to do this and as he pushed it to take a step forward, it obeyed even if it took more strain than usual. It was like it was lacking the natural drive that Dan had gotten used to his steps having.

His only life purpose was to hunt souls and nothing else. Why was his body not acting like it normally would?

Dan pushed forward regardless and accessed his environment. He was in a forest, likely near where he’d fed before retracting to rest. He had been clever as a human and he knew it must mean there was an exposed vein of magic somewhere near by – his preferred method of hunting.

He’d always been more foolhardy than a lot of other soul snatchers, as he moved much closer to the veins when hunting. The rays emitting from the opening were blinding to their kind and none liked to get too close, except Dan.

It was an obvious reminder of what had changed them and it spoke to something within them, as it was magic that had inadvertently created these monsters. It felt like it brought back a bit of their humanity but all they’d ever feel was the pain and fear associated with touching the vein originally.

It took Dan just around a day before he found a suitable victim. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a magical human but he’d settle for anything at that point. He’d felt aimless the whole day through and something was just wrong. He couldn’t exist like he had before and he was just desperate to feed and go back to rest.

He managed to get spotted by the young man before he managed to grab him. Dan chased after him, only half-heartedly. Soul snatchers were fast though, so the man had no chance of outrunning him either way.

Dan was picking up his pace now, his body reminding that this was what he was made for doing. His intended victim kept running… right into a lake, diving in in a foolish attempt to hinder Dan. Water didn’t stop soul snatchers but in this case, something else did.

Dan was beginning to remember his last hunt, which really didn’t feel like a hunt. There was something odd about the whole thing because he hadn’t consumed a soul, had he? Counting the souls locked away inside of him, he found exactly the same number as when he woke up last time.

But soul snatchers weren’t supposed to be able to rest if they did not claim a soul.

“Stay away, foul beast! Call of your creature, magic human wherever you are! I beg of you,” the man shouted desperately while treading water.

Dan saw fear in the man’s eyes, which would normally have enticed him but this time it didn’t. Instead, a memory of bright blue eyes flashed before his mind’s eye.

He came to a halt at the edge of the water, finding no compulsion to move forward and to go snatch up the man and his soul. This was utterly peculiar. As if he hadn’t already had the worst day with a body that seemed aimless?

Looking down at his feet, he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the water. Some believed that soul snatchers couldn’t be seen in reflections but that had never been the case, it was just a false fact that someone had started spreading.

Dan had seen his own reflection as a soul snatcher before; pale, dark hair and empty black eyes. But that wasn’t the sight that met him and he actually stumbled back a couple of steps, only to rush forward again.

The reflection staring back as him looked nothing like he remembered. His skin was warmer and there was a small rosy patch on one of his cheeks. His face had rounded somehow and when he pulled his lips back into a sceptic grimace, small hollows formed on his cheeks. His hair was lighter too, brown rather than black and curling at the tips rather than being straight. However, the most mesmerising of it all was his eyes; they’d been dark voids but now they were warm brownish tones and it almost looked like tiny slivers of gold moved around within them.

Something moved in the water and the man was making a run for it. More out of habit than need, Dan found himself moving after him and knocking him to his feet. He remembered how to do this and it made a lot more sense than whatever made the water throw back such a faulty reflection. Dan couldn’t look like that. Soul snatchers didn’t look like that.

“Please,” the man whined and squirmed under Dan, who’d gotten a tight hold of his shoulders and poised himself above him.

A jolt of memory went through his body and Dan recalled a previous attack that had ended up in a similar manner only it had been a boy beneath him, a boy way too young to be glowing like that.

Dan sprung back from the man as he remembered and another memory flashed in his mind. A soft stroke of fingertips on his cheek that had made his body confused but it had freed his mind momentarily.

“Go,” Dan barked at the man, who looked as confused as Dan felt. He didn’t take long to stumble off, though he did glance back a couple of times.

Dan’s throat hurt but he shouldn’t even have been able to speak. Soul snatchers didn’t speak. He went back to the water and stared at his reflection with furrowed brows. He looked… almost human, but not quite.

There was still some of the black masking aura around him but it seemed much less heavy than before. His eyes fascinated him and he kneeled down to get a proper look. He had not been mistaken at the first glance.

Tiny slivers of gold moved around in Dan’s brown eyes as opposed to black voids that they’d been before. He felt another jolt of memory in his head as the tiny gold slivers moved around.

Phil.

The golden boy with the blue eyes, Dan remembered him now. Phil who’d changed everything when he’d touched Dan. He’d spoken to Dan like a friend rather than a predator and Dan hadn’t been able to kill Phil.

In fact, he had done everything in his power to protect the boy, hadn’t he? He remembered immense pain as he tired desperately to fight his nature and push instead of pull while he had his hands pressed to the boy’s chest and an open channel to his soul.

He had to find the boy.

Dan moved towards the hum of people that he could still sense. His tattled clothes were a dead give-away to what he was but he found some clothes hanging out to dry in a backyard facing the forest.

He almost felt bad for stealing the clothes.

This whole thing was too odd. He was a killer and now he felt remorse for stealing some items. His world had been flipped upside down with that one rest and meeting Phil. Dan had to see the boy again, he just knew it.

Maybe Phil could explain what was going on because Dan frankly had no clue.

He was surprised to find that he was able to move through the small village fairly inconspicuous with a jacket closed around his torso and a pair of loose pants around his lower half. His tattered clothes were still merged to him but they were hid beneath the stolen items.

He moved through town, keeping his head down. He hadn’t been around people, without consuming in their soul immediately after, for years.

His body told him that he should attack all the people he walked past, especially those emitting a dull glow within them. They were magic wielding humans but by the appearance of their abilities, they did not practice it. However, he restrained himself like he’d never been able to do before.

Dan kept moving through town, not really knowing where he was going but he felt a hum in his chest that wasn’t dissimilar to the one he’d used to feel when he hunted. He let his instincts guide him. They had to lead him to Phil.

If Dan remembered correctly, Phil was too powerful for his own good and Dan was certain it was those powers pulling him towards Phil, if the boy was even still alive.

He came to a halt outside of a school and glanced through the fence. There were kids all ages in there and Dan watched intensively before his eyes refused to move on from a black-haired boy.

Only, it wasn’t really a little boy, more a boy in his very late teens. How was that even possible?

The boy turned around to speak to his friend sat at the other side of him at the picnic table and Dan knew that that human was the same Phil that he’d encountered.

It must have been over ten years ago now. Dan gulped and stumbled away from the fence. Rests were only supposed to last from a couple weeks to a few months, maybe up to a year if you got someone really powerful. How could Dan have rested for over a decade when he didn’t even consume a soul?

And on top of his confusion, Dan felt the innate pull towards the boy and he knew he had to get out of there immediately.

Phil laughed at his friend’s silly joke and made sure to pay attention to everybody at his lunch table. He savoured these moments because they’d all graduate in a month and there would be no more moments like this.

He was so thankful that he had been able to go to school and make friends. He vaguely recalled being held back a year at home and that he’d missed the first year of school. He knew he had magic inside of him and the ability to wield it and his parents had been scared to let him go.

But they had eventually agreed to let him go to school and it had been the happiest day of Phil’s life. Phil wasn’t really able to remember the time where he’s skin had been glowing and magic had been seeping out of his fingertips. He’d just been a young child then and those memories had faded as he’d made new ones. Still, somewhere in his subconscious he retained one certain vivid memory, but he’d chucked it up to a dream.

Phil turned to look over his left shoulder as he felt like he was being watched. There was someone at the fence but they seemed to spurt off as soon as Phil looked over there. He should probably alert a teacher if some pervert was spying on the younger children but the man shuffled off extremely fast.

There was something about the feel of the man that almost made Phil get out of his seat. He’d always been a good judge of character, thanks to his light, and he read intentions extremely well.

He still hid the fact that he was capable of wielding magic from everyone, except his family and Carly. That did mean that he didn’t use it or practiced in secret. His magic felt so strong and powerful and capable and he could always count on it. He didn’t go a day without flexing his magic muscle, as he begun to feel poorly if he hadn’t done magic in a while.

Right now, it told him to get out of his seat and hike after the shadowy figure but then the bell rung and Phil didn’t want to miss class. Finals were coming up and he had to pay attention.

There was an inkling in the back of his head, nudging at memories he didn’t know he still had stored in there. For some reason, he kept picturing black orbs staring down at him, looking terrifying but they also seeming terrified.

Dan practically ran as soon as he found his footing. This simply couldn’t be. Everything was wrong with his world. He’d let a soul go, his appearance had changed and over a decade had passed and on top of everything he seemed all there, mind wise.

He was thinking and feeling like he’d been able to since he was dared to touch that exposed vein of magic by his knucklehead friends. He had read a lot on the subject as a teen and he had been sure if he just nudged it, it wouldn’t to anything bad. He just wanted to feel the surge of magic. That was the whole reasons he’d agreed to go on the field trip.

His little brother had magic. Dan had been so jealous and Adrian had always grinned so widely when he showed off what he could do.

Dan didn’t envy the scolding that followed if their parents found out. It wasn’t safe to be openly magic. Dan had always through that that was bullshit. Surely having some extra ability didn’t make you coherently evil. His brother hadn’t been.

Phil didn’t seem to be.

Of course, Dan hadn’t known how soul snatchers actually came to be. No one had warned him what touching magic would do to you if your body weren’t made for bearing magic. No one had minded him about going travelling with his friends as long as they stayed in actual houses, so that soul snatchers wouldn’t come get them in the night.

Soul snatchers didn’t only hunt during the night, it was another myth that Dan didn’t understand how had come about. He felt clueless about the whole thing and while it hadn’t mattered when he’d been a ruthless killing machine, it did now because his thoughts wouldn’t shut up.

Phil was there, tall and lanky and not the young boy that Dan saw in his memories. Phil, who with one gentle touch had made Dan go entirely against his instincts and attempt to sacrifice himself for the pure boy’s future.

Dan didn’t stop running until he was back in the forest away from the humans. He didn’t feel like a soul snatcher, not after waking up, but he didn’t feel like a human either. He was seemingly stuck somewhere in-between.

His mind felt like his own now, like it had when he’d been human but his body was still reacting when a magical human had walked by him. It was like a devil on his shoulder urging him to attack them and an instinctive pull in his body. He didn’t feel it towards normal humans anymore though.

Dan sat down with his back against a tree. He hadn’t even spent any time worrying about that guy that he’d let go. Soul snatchers didn’t leave live victims because they weren’t supposed to leave witnesses. It was the same reason why they didn’t hunt in public areas.

They didn’t want to be captured, not because of their thoughts and emotions, which soul snatchers didn’t have, but because they longed to roam free.

This was an all too real wake-up and Dan didn’t know what to do.

Back at the school, he’d sprinted off partly because he felt so stunned by the fact that he’d been asleep for over a decade but also because he’d felt that pull towards Phil so strongly and he had been able to identify what had pulled him across town right to the spot where Phil was.

It was the hunger, the hunger that had used to rule his life. It had pulled him towards Phil, like an exposed vein pulled in any magic wielding human.

It was an attraction that Dan wasn’t sure could be explained. He knew he might try and kill Phil again and take his soul for real if he ever got to close.

And that absolutely terrified Dan because he didn’t want to do that but he couldn’t ensure that he wouldn’t. Phil had been able to somehow stop him last time, with his magic touch, but who knew if it would work again?

Still, Dan longed to talk to Phil.

In his mind, it had not been that long since the painful exchange between them had occurred. Dan had poured his masking ability onto Phil and turned his skin dull and his hair black. And Phil was still alive today.

Dan smiled at that. He’d actually succeeded with his desperate attempt based on a hunch. He’d masked Phil and now the boy was sitting at a table at school with friends sharing lunch.

He wouldn’t have been able to do that with glowing skin that was for sure.

However, Phil’s magic hadn’t lessened one bit, in fact it had felt like it had gotten stronger. It was just masked really well. Dan knew what to look for and when he looked he saw a brilliant glow to the boy’s skin and eyes impossible bright.

Phil was still the brightest light and thus, Dan was probably the most dangerous creature for Phil now.

Dan knew Phil’s true power, unlike any other soul snatcher or any ill-willed humans. He’d felt a craving when he’s spotted Phil.

He wanted to talk to him, to ask him about all of this and what the hell had happened to him. He also kind of wanted to consume his soul.

Dan shut himself off in the forest for days, just walking around aimlessly. He sensed humans coming near one every so often but he made no move to attack them. What was the point of it? He didn’t want to pin them down and extract their souls and consume them. He wanted to be near the boy with the blue eyes.

He wanted to go up to Phil and either wrap his arms around his shoulders in a hug or force his hands onto his chest and rip that enthralling light right out of him.

So Dan stayed in the forest doing nothing, and waiting for nature to take its course. Normally, he’d become ravenous after a week of not feeding but it didn’t come.

Despite being able to feel emotions, Dan just felt empty and pointless. His existence didn’t make sense anymore. He wasn’t a human but he didn’t feel like a soul snatcher anymore either. He was just a hopeless case.

He lasted out there for months, impatiently waiting for the end to come. He remember having read something about the only way to end soul snatchers was to keep them from taking a soul for a very long time.

Eventually his mutation of a body would convulse and give up when it didn’t have any soul power to keep it running. Dan felt the pain, it had been there since he had woken up but it didn’t increase as he expected.

It was a steady pain, which he became less and less aware of as time passed.

While Dan was attempting to starve himself in the forest, Phil went about his daily life, only he had an odd pull towards the forest. His parents had forbidden him to go there, warning him of soul snatchers that would consume his soul in a heartbeat.

Phil had been fascinated with soul snatchers for almost as long as he could remember. He was intrigued how they worked because contrary to popular beliefs, Phil was certain magical humans didn’t control the so-called monsters.

There wasn’t a lot of information on them available and whenever his parents caught him reading about them, they’d tell him off and demand he spent time on his studies instead. He had done so but with the final exam of his school year, he went back to the books he’d hidden away, on a hunch.

He kept having this mental image of dark eyes watching him intensely and he needed to know where he’d seen those. He assumed it must have been a photo from one of his books, as soul snatchers were notorious for their vicious black eyes. Only, the eyes in Phil’s mind weren’t vicious and they seemed alive and moving like they wouldn’t do in a photo.

One day in the summer holiday, he ventured outside and paused outside of his house. He’d meant to go to the library in town, which meant he was supposed to turn right but he felt himself glancing left.

He felt the pull towards the exposed vein of magic that he knew was located in the forest. Carly had warned him about it and told him not to go near it under any circumstances. She’s sounded so scared that he’d decided to listen for once.

However, he also felt another pull. A pull that wasn’t like the one he’d always felt towards the exposed vein. It was a subtler hum within him and it almost felt like an echo of his own hum, the hum of the light coursing through his body.

He knew his light sounded and felt brighter than most other people’s light and whatever was calling out to him felt like it ran on his frequency. He had to go investigate, despite his parents’ and Carly’s warnings.

Phil had always been a curious child and even if his first ever excursion wasn’t a tangible memory for him, the whole thing still felt eerily familiar to the boy. He moved towards the forest anyway.

He was confident in his magic, he knew how to protect himself if a soul snatcher should be around. Besides, he didn’t head towards the exposed vein no matter how much his body tried to guide him there.

He went towards the pull that felt like his own light.

Dan felt the change in the air and snapped his head up; he’d been sitting against a tree, which roots were surrounded by the leaves, just contemplating life and death. It was a dark spiral but when you literally had nothing other than to do than sit around, it was better than doing nothing.

The breeze of magic carried towards Dan and it felt like it went through him. He stumbled to his feet. It wasn’t unusual for magic to carry around in the wind but it usually meant that there was a magic wielding human around, who’d inadvertently let out a bit of their magic.

And this particular magic felt familiar somehow and Dan clenched his jaw. He should have been gone by now. It had been months since he’d come back from his rest and he hadn’t taken a soul. He hadn’t even attempted to hunt past his first horrible attempt with the man running into the lake.

Dan shook his head and sat back down amongst the leaves in his hiding spot. He was imagining things. It was the paranoia of being out here alone for so long. He suffered at the hands of his human emotions again, and he’d actually forgot how much it could suck to feel.

Dan closed his eyes and closed off his mind. He pulled his thinly veiled dark aura in close around him. It was broken after what had happened with the golden boy but it was still there and it concealed him well enough.

It was only when it felt like he was burning that he pulled it back and sensed the environment around him because this wasn’t something he’d ever felt before. And fear stuck in his heart when he realised what it was.

Phil.

Phil had followed the slow hum and it had been getting stronger and stronger until it suddenly seemed to dim to almost nothing. He wasn’t one to give up and powered through and headed in the direction his magic had told him to go. He picked up on the trail again but it was so much fainter there.

He was on the alert for soul snatchers but he hadn’t sensed any out and about. Some of the townsfolk insisted that you were safe if you went out in the daytime but Phil’s books had said that was wrong. Soul snatchers weren’t nocturnal like that.

He paused in a clearing, feeling the hum all around him. Whatever it was, this was the origin place of it, or as specific as Phil could get. When he concentrated it was like he could feel a fog in the air and when he let his magic run to his fingers and raised his hands, the fog stopped being transparent.

Phil had never seen anything like this. Invisible fog that was definitely magic in some way. He glanced around and saw how it grew denser around one particular tree with foliage all around its roots. Could trees emit fog? Phil wondered and stepped closer.

Dan was so afraid to move. Phil was right there and suddenly it didn’t feel like the leaves and his dark aura masked him very well.

His body told him to leap into attack and do to Phil what he’d been craving this whole time. His mind was in awe of this brave human, who’d turned from a small naïve boy into a young capable man.

Dan blinked rapidly as Phil made Dan’s dark aura visible with a wave of his glowing hands. Phil was using magic out in the open but he looked so confident and happy and he made it look so damn easy. Old envy welled up in Dan’s chest but it wasn’t the same kind that had made him agree to go with his friend on that stupid trip.

He wanted what Phil had, all of it - the loving family, the amazing powers, the genuine friends and most of all being so alive. However, he knew that wasn’t how it worked and he found a small comfort in knowing Phil was probably well deserving of his fortune.

“Hello?” Phil called out and Dan forced his body not to winch. He was concentrating so hard on keeping his back against the tree trunk so he didn’t spring up and attack Phil. Again.

Maybe he should. Maybe Phil would be able to end his misery. He wasn’t sure this starving himself out tactic would work, as he didn’t seem to have deteriorated one bit.

“I know something is here,” Phil said, voice more confident. He was sure something was creating the fog, even though he didn’t know what. The dense patch of fog was so alluring and Phil took another step forward.

“I wish you no harm,” he declared to the fog. “I’m just curious. My light calls out to you, so you must have magic too.”

Dan chuckled, before he could stop himself. Dan didn’t have magic. He wasn’t magic, never had been and never would be. It was what had gotten him into this mess in the first time.

“Did you just laugh?” Phil’s voice called out confused and he took yet another step forward.

Dan’s muscles tensed and he practically had to constrain himself.

“Move back,” Dan barked and his voice sounded coarse. He still had it, apparently, despite not having used it in months.

Phil was baffled when he’d heard the tree laugh and now whatever it was, finally spoke up, even if it was to tell him to step back. The voice sounded urgent and Phil took several paces back.

There was something familiar about the voice, it was almost as if he’d heard it before. He should probably have been scared. There was so much about magic that he didn’t know and whatever this was, it could be bad. However, Phil felt the magic in the air and he refused to believe that anyone magical could be evil.

“I’ve moved back, please reveal yourself. I only wish to speak to you,” Phil said and took another step back for good measure.

“It’s not a good idea,” the voice responded.

“Why not?” Phil pressed on. “You’re magic and you’re hiding, so you need my help. I can help you. You don’t have to be scared of me.”

Dan clenched his jaw and wanted to laugh again. He wasn’t scared of Phil. Maybe he should be because the boy seemed like he wielded the most powerful magic ever, a natural force in his own right. However, no matter how strong, Phil was still prey to Dan.

It just didn’t really feel like that anymore.

“Fine,” Dan sighed because he’d yearned for this.

He’d wanted to talk to Phil from the moment he remembered about the boy. He had only kept his distance because he was confused and worried. He still didn’t want to hurt Phil but the young man was clearly very powerful and Dan hoped he’d be able to stop his soul snatcher tendencies if it came to that.

Dan got to his feet and walked out of the bushes around the tree.

Phil gaped when a man rose to his feet.

The man was tall and breath-taking in a punch you in the gut kind of way. He was around Phil’s height and his eyes were captivating. They were warm and brown and Phil could swear that he saw strains of light within them.

The two boys stared at each other, the silence heavy as their eyes raked over the other.

“Do you remember me?”

It only took hearing the voice at the same time as looking at him to make Phil remember. It couldn’t be. Dan had been a figment of his childhood mind; the kind soul snatcher. When he’d told his parents the story of Dan, they’d told him that was silly and not to make up soul snatchers as imaginary friends.

“Dan,” Phil whispered.

Dan’s name fell from Phil’s lips and Dan wanted to sink into the ground. His body was still telling him to rush forward, palms open on the powerful man’s chest. He stayed put. Phil remembered him. It had been way past ten years and Phil still remembered him.

Dan would have thought that the boy would have forgotten. In his experience, people didn’t remember many things from their early childhood.

“You’re… different,” Phil said. It was the only way he knew how to describe the young man before him.

Dan’s hair had been black, hadn’t it? And his face surely hadn’t looked that squishy. Did soul snatchers even age or change their physical appearance over time?

The black orbs from Phil’s memory suddenly made perfect sense now. It had been Dan’s eyes but he looked so different now. He looked almost human. He had definitely been a soul snatcher before, right? How did he look like that now?

Dan scuffed. “Well observed,” Dan said, relishing a bit that he had gotten back his sarcastic tone. He’d missed it.

“How’s that possible?” Phil pressed on and took a step forward. Dan raised his arms and backed away to keep the original amount of space between them. Phil was like a piece of meat dangled in front of a predator, even if this particular predator was currently monitored by a human mind. You shouldn’t poke a bear, no matter the circumstances.

“I don’t know,” Dan said. “I thought you must know what happened. You’re the magic one.”

Phil shook his head. His memories were fussy. He remembered Dan hovering over him and his eyes twisted in inner turmoil.

“I was just a kid!” Phil protested and scratched the back of his head. “It was a long time ago. Hey, where have you been all this time? Have you been looking like that the whole time?”

“No,” Dan said hesitantly. “I only woke up a few months ago.”

“Woke up?” Phil asked confused. Did soul snatchers go into slumber? More importantly, did they go to slumber for nearly fifteen years or how long it had been? That seemed improbably. “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

Phil took another step forward and Dan took another one back.

“We usually rest after we consume a soul, Phil. But I don’t know what happened between us. I don’t know how I woke up with brown eyes, the ability to speak or access to my human mind. None of this makes sense.”

Phil didn’t like the despair in Dan’s voice. He sounded broken, and so human, despite the magic floating around him indicating he wasn’t. Phil tried desperately to remember their previous encounter looking for clues, but he wasn’t sure what parts of the story he had made up in his head and which had actually been true.

Then it clicked into place.

“You gave me your masking aura,” Phil recalled.

Dan flinched as Phil spoke and reminded him of the foolish action he’d done. He was happy with it now, as it did seem to have protected Phil, but he hadn’t been thinking things through. He’d been so swept up in the ability to even feel that he’d just rushed on with his first and best idea.

“Yeah?” Dan tried.

“No, Dan, don’t you see?” Phil took a step forward and Dan moved backwards yet again. Phil didn’t seem too aware of this weird dance that they were doing but Dan had to keep back. He was so anxious for answers but he didn’t trust his predatory instincts one bit.

“You gave me some of yourself and you must have taken some of me when you pulled back. Martyn told me a few times that I used to be blond and my skin used to glow, I thought I just grew out of it, you know? Or maybe he was remembering wrong as my parents would deny it. But you… took some of my shine and left a bit of the dark with me. Your hair and eyes got lighter and you got the colour back in your cheeks.”

It made sense actually. It made a lot of sense to Dan. He’d just want to give but when he came into contact with a soul it was his instinct to take, so it did seem very possible that he’d held onto some of Phil despite not meaning to.

He felt bad now. He’d meant well with the action but what if he had dulled Phil’s life?

“I’m sorry, Phil,” Dan said and Phil didn’t understand why he was apologising. “I didn’t mean to do that. I just wanted to stop your skin from glowing and you looking so powerful. I thought people would hurt you if they saw.”

Phil gulped and looked down at his hands. They would glow when he practiced magic but had his whole body used to glow like that? It would certainly explain why his older brother had been so adamant about it and why there were no baby photos of Phil around the house. Magic wielding humans were not safe, which was why Phil had never told anyone about what he could do. He didn’t want to be taken away, no matter how much it hurt to have to hide it. He could always locate which other people had light inside of them, or _glow_ as he now knew it was officially called. He could sense the magic being trapped, unused and how it pained the person.

Dan’s actions had masked him, just like the invisible fog had hid away Dan when Phil came looking for him.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I went to school; if I was glowing I wouldn’t have been able to do that. Heck, I probably wouldn’t even have been allowed outside the house. And to be quite frank, I’ve always loved that my hair was black, even if I knew it wasn’t my original colour. I just thought it was something my light had changed for me. Will you stop backing away?” Phil huffed out, as they done their little step thing yet again.

Phil had been aware that Dan kept backing away. He just had been too busy talking about more important things to acknowledge it but now he’d had enough. Every time he made an attempt to each out, the boy would back away.

“No, I will not,” Dan bit back. He couldn’t get close to Phil, who insisted on moving closer every other minute.

It did warm Dan’s heart to hear that Phil had had a fairly normal life. The most important part was that he was still alive despite glowing like a damn lighthouse to Dan. Phil blinded Dan and clouded his judgement but he forced his feet backwards whenever the blue-eyed boy moved closer.

“Why?” Phil demanded to know.

‘Why’ seemed to be Phil’s favourite word. Dan remembered him asking that a lot as a kid as well.

“I am a soul snatcher, Phil. I’m dangerous. I consume souls, or have you forgotten? And frankly to me you’re still glowing powerfully and just daring me to reach out and take you soul.”

“Oh,” Phil said and his shoulders slumped down in defeat and for once he didn’t move closer. “But you don’t look like a soul snatcher anymore.”

Dan couldn’t argue with that. He’d even come to the conclusion that his robes weren’t fully merged to his body anymore. If he wanted, he might very well be able to get out of them. He could probably look like a normal human if you disregarded the moving gold shards in his eyes. But he was still a soul snatcher and powerful _glow_ called out to his instincts.

“I don’t know what happened to me, Phil,” Dan admitted. “I think you might be right that I somehow took some of your light and it touched me. I’ve taken magical souls before and I had no lasting effects from taking them. Maybe it’s because you’re still alive despite me touching your soul. I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.”

“Why did you do it? Why did you care enough to do that for me? Why didn’t you just consume my soul?” Phil said, making full use of his favourite word yet again.

Dan didn’t know how to answer but he’d try for Phil.

“You made me speak for the first time in years, you made me feel for the first time in years, I was finally able to properly think after your finger tips traced along my cheek. I’d felt empty and dead but you brought me back to life. I didn’t want to go back to being a soulless soul snatcher after that. I wanted to die, like that, like I was human. But I wanted to help you and that was the only way I could think of.”

Phil’s eyes widened with awe. Surely, the man in front of him was not a soul snatcher. He seemed even more human than at their last encounter.

“Have you taken any souls since you woke up?” Phil asked. He needed to know. He needed to confirm his suspicions. Magic worked in mysterious ways and Phil had learnt to trust it from birth.

His magic was his constant companion and he felt confident that it couldn’t have done anything bad to Dan.

“No,” Dan said, the word a mere whisper over his lips. “I… it’s not the same. The hunger is dulled. It’s still there but it’s only really around you that I feel it as deeply as I did before.”

Phil nodded and closed his eyes and used his magic to appear smack down in front of Dan.

In the blink of an eye, Phil disappeared and reappeared in front of Dan. Dan wanted to stumble back, retract both from the surprise and the hunger rising in his chest but Phil’s eyes were locked with his and that somehow immobilised him.

His heart began picking up pace and caused his chest to heave. He wanted to press his palms to Phil’s chest; he was making this way too easy. It would hardly take any movement at all.

Instead he balled them into firsts at his side and squeezed them so hard that he had no doubt that the skin over them turned white. Phil was still staring at him. Eyes blue, kind and not a fleck of worries filled them.

Phil hadn’t been worried as a kid either, so Dan supposed that he should be used to that.

Phil smiled at Dan; it was the soft kind of smile that tugged up at one side first, so gently before taking over his whole face. Dan was clearly in distress but he didn’t move. His whole body tensed but he made no move to launch an attack or retreat.

No, Phil was confident that Dan wasn’t a soul snatcher, not anymore. He looked so human. Magic had made him human again.

There was still so much that Phil wanted to know about Dan. How had he become this? How long had it been since he lost his humanity? How did the whole thing work? None of that mattered right now though.

Phil was staring at Dan, who based on his facial expression was feeling just about every range of emotions available on the spectrum.

Dan was watching Phil’s face, which was excluding fondness and trust, which wasn’t something Dan had seen in a very long time. Phil moved his hand and there it was.

The light stroke of soft fingertips against his cheek shouldn’t feel this familiar to Dan but they did. He didn’t spring away from the touch like he had last time Phil had touched him. Instead, he remained completely still.

Maybe he even leaned into the touch a little. All malice drained away from him and his predatory instincts were condemned to the back of his mind. Phil’s touch was feathery light yet it felt so strong.

“You’re not a soul snatcher, Dan. You’re magic, just like me.”

And however unlikely and impossible it seemed for those words to be true, Dan believed Phil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I love this story so damn much. I've got it all mapped out and done but I'm can't help but entertain the idea that I might write more with these characters in the future after this five chapter story is finished? I hope you like it so far too. 
> 
> Find more of my stories under my profile or at https://www.wattpad.com/SecretNRB & http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. Come talk to me @natigail on Tumblr or use the comment section below.


	4. Part 3: The Reformed Soul Snatcher & The Prodigal Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been years since they met for the second time and the magical light and not-quite soul snatcher have grown close and comfortable until a coven comes to their small town and stir up serious trouble.

**The Reformed Soul Snatcher & The Prodigal Light**

Phil has absolutely no doubt in his mind that Dan was magic and much more human than soul snatcher. His light assured him of the fact and he’d never been one to turn away from the advice of his magic.

Still, getting the other boy – ‘cause he was a boy, not a creature – to fully trust his words and accept them was a different story. Dan held himself back, scared to be around Phil and people. He’d use his razor-sharp tongue to cut into Phil in an attempt to get him to back off.

Phil had left a bit heart-broken after that day when Dan all but spat in his face when Phil had kept saying how amazing it was that Dan was magical. Looking back he know realised he must have stomped around on a sensitive subject. Phil had seen the pain, the hurt and the confusion in those gorgeous and alive eyes.

They were a stark contrast to the memory of black orbs that had filled his dreams for years on end. They were full and bright and welcoming, despite their owner’s harsh words and attempt at distancing Phil.

Phil came back to the same spot the following day to talk to Dan, who was still not in a great mood to talk to Phil. Or at least he seemed set on appearing like that. The day after that, Dan had moved to a different spot in the forest but Phil had found him just as easily by simply following the guide of his light.

It became a habit between them and Dan was a tough one to crack but gradually his amour started to melt away. The more touches Phil could sneak in the better. If it had been entirely up to Phil, he’d just have teleported in front of Dan and wrapped the slightly taller boy into his arms and refused to let go until all the horrible drained out of Dan.

However, Phil did his best to respect Dan’s boundaries, all the while slowly challenging them. They talked a lot, even if Dan often was somewhat reluctant.

Some of it was about their situation but mostly they stayed clear of that. Neither of them had fully understood how it had been possible for Phil to turn a soul snatcher into back into a human, at least somewhat human. Instead they talked about the games they’d grown up playing, they swapped anecdotes from their school times and they shared their thoughts on everything and anything.

They became best friends despite the distance that had to be between them.

Phil was sure he saw Dan slowly becoming more and more human and the pain in his eyes lessening.

Dan wasn’t sure how he was becoming friends with Phil. It was the same boy that had made him hesitate even as a ruthless killing machine and the same person, who possessed the touch that was the only thing that could calm Dan’s mind.

He’d tried his best to push Phil away. Phil deserved a normal life; Dan still thought this as passionately as he had back when he’d been ready to give up his own life for it. Normal life didn’t include sneaking off to the forest every single day, without fail, to talk to a reformed soul snatcher.

But Phil had been the epitome of patience and kindness. He brushed off Dan’s word with expert experience as time wore on and he would always find tiny excuses to let his fingers linger on Dan’s skin. It might be picking off an almost invisible piece of leaf from his palm or a smudge on his chin.

Months wore on again but Dan couldn’t even find himself to compare these months to the ones where he’d tried starving himself to death. There was pre-Phil and post-Phil and they were a world of different even if Dan still lurked around the forest.

In his spare time, Dan would scare away other soul snatchers by making his aura venomous and claiming the territory as his. It had never been something he’d tried before because he had just used to be awake for a couple of days, find a mark and then gone back to rest.

He’d never been the territorial kind but he’d become it. This was Phil’s place and he would do anything to protect Phil and the people the boy cared about.

Phil had been nervous coming to the forest one day. Dan had been able to feel it coming miles off. They’d become extremely attuned to each other’s emotions, whether it was the cause of somewhat sharing bits of Phil’s light or the amount of time they spent together, none of them knew.

Phil had been sure that Dan would snort in a sarcastic manner before staring at him in disbelief when he heard Phil’s request. Phil’s hands had felt clammy but he’d soldiered on.

Dan had lived in the forest for way to long and though Dan said that he didn’t mind whenever Phil brought it up, he still should be able to have a home.

Being invited to move in to Phil’s new house wasn’t something Dan had ever imagined possible. He even pointed out that soul snatchers couldn’t go into homes of humans.

It didn’t take more than a moment for Phil to use Dan’s utterance to his advantage and he challenged the brunet to try and if he could indeed walk inside of their future place then he’d agree to move in.

Dan really did appreciate the offer and agreed to Phil’s ridiculous dare. He knew it wouldn’t work. He was stuck between humanity and soullessness but he was confident that he still was kept away from people’s homes.

Turns out, Dan had to eat his words and move in. Phil’s new place provided absolutely no barrier for Dan’s presence. In fact, Dan felt like the whole place welcomed him and beaconed him inside. Or maybe it was just because all surfaces where covered in Phil’s things.

Dan began to meet other people too; some of Phil’s friends and none of them doubted that he was human for a second. The cover story of how they met was so random but no one cared enough to pry it apart.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and months into a year.

Dan had secretly been sure that Phil would have kicked him out at some point but it had never happened.

He could just have asked Phil, who’d happily confirmed that he was never letting Dan go.

They’d become best friends, their souls felt like they had linked – even if Dan sometimes argued that he didn’t technically had a soul, at least not a complete one. Phil wouldn’t hear a word of it and as time wore on they stopped talking about Dan’s past as a soul snatcher.

He’d occasionally eat human food, sparingly, but he never ventured near souls with the purpose of consuming them. Dan stopped feeling the urge as long as he spent significant amount of times with Phil and felt enough of Phil’s light and reassuring touches.

All malicious thoughts drained away the moment he stood next to that beam of light.

It had turned into a good life for the both of them. Even Phil’s family had accepted Dan with open arms and Dan almost wanted to cry the first time Mrs Lester had pulled him into a hug as they left after a dinner at their place.

However, bliss could only last so long and the boys should have known better than to grow too comfortable in it. One could argue that they deserved this happy, worriless time where all that mattered was each other and the life they were building together.

Soul snatchers were still high in numbers but hardly any from Phil’s hometown fell victim to it because of Dan’s protection that warded off any of them that closed in on the idyllic town. There were annual counts of suspected soul snatcher deaths and it had become so common that Phil had even forgot to mention it to Dan.

If he had, maybe they’d have realised that dropping from a few dozen to absolute zero was bound to attract some attention.

It had been a quiet Sunday evening and Dan and Phil had been lounging around their place, reading books and eating far more sweets than could be good for them. Or Phil overate the sweets while Dan took an occasional nipple.

Carly came practically busting through their door. Phil instantly felt worried because his light reacted to her sheer terror. Dan had never quite grown comfortable around her, he was still careful around magic wielding humans just to err on the side of caution.

“Phil, Dan…” she huffed out in-between panicked breaths. “There’s someone here… Someone from a coven I think. I didn’t… I didn’t think any existed anymore… but they’re here…”

Phil and Dan looked to each other. They’d both read up extensively on soul snatchers and old magic culture just to be as well-informed about their situation as they could be but covens were a thing of the past, right? They’d never officially been banned but when magic hate spiked a lot of them had been disbanded as a result and with so many magic humans hiding their true powers there was never really formed new ones.

“Carly, that’s insane. Covens haven’t been around for as long as I’ve been alive,” Phil said, wanting to cling onto the hope that this was some big misunderstanding.

Reading up on covens had revealed quite a lot. In some instances of history, they’d been manipulative and threatening to overthrow the government put in place by largely non-magic humans.

And marching up to a town where they didn’t have any ties could likely only mean one thing, if the books had taught Dan and Phil anything. They were in search of a powerful magic that once every century got tied to a human.

When they’d stumbled upon the phrase _light_ in their research, Phil had laughed it off because that was what he’d been calling his _glow_ before he knew the proper terminology. However, Dan had been much more sombre about it. He told Phil how Phil’s magic was the most pure Dan had ever encountered and how he feared Phil might actually be this century’s _light_.

They’d shelved their research ever since. It felt scary digging any deeper and Phil hadn’t wanted to find out what it would entail to be a _light_ and Dan had respected his decision. Phil didn’t want a life that would be run for him and Dan knew exactly how he felt after having been a slave to animalistic predatory urges for years.

“Well, there’s a massive coven outside and they have some kind of document from the state that allowed them to come meet everyone in our town. It’s something based on our soul snatcher numbers as they were apparently as low as zero? I mean I knew they dropped but to not have lost a single soul over the whole course of the year?”

While Carly muttered the last few sentences to herself, Dan shot Phil a guilty look. That had been his work. He’d made sure nothing to get close to them and now bloody powerful coven members were showing up in their otherwise insignificant town.

“Surely, nobody is going to let them?” Phil said, trying to be hopeful. “So many of the townspeople hate magic and anything to do with it?”

“I wouldn’t be so certain,” Carly said with a shake of her head. “Sure, there’s a bit of rotten eggs here and there but because we live so close to an exposed vein of magic, we attracted a lot of magic humans.”

Phil hadn’t considered that.

“What do we do, Dan?” Phil asked, somewhat desperately to Dan, who’d been eerily quiet.

Dan had silently contemplated if he’d be able to kill of the entire coven to keep them from taking Phil. He couldn’t lose Phil. He’d fall apart without him. Still, it didn’t seem very sensible to take on however many magic wielding humans and Dan knew his vessel would probably corrupt of he sucked in that much power. His predatory body had been starved off it from far longer than should have been possible already, though he had an inkling that he was living off of Phil’s excess magic.

If they couldn’t fight, they could flee.

“We go, Phil,” Dan said and stepped up to take Phil’s hands in his. He always felt calmer when making physical contact with his partner in life. “We run away before they get a good look at you.”

Phil shook his head. He’d never believe that running away was the answer to anything. You stayed and you worked you butt off. It was the same stubbornness and determination that had kept him going back to see Dan’s hostile ass for months.

“We have to stay, Dan. I’m sure I’m not their prodigal _light_ ,” Phil said and gave Dan’s hand a squeeze.

“Oh my God,” Carly exclaimed as the stared at the two tall boys. “Phil… Do you know about _light_? Is… Damn! It actually makes perfect sense! You literally excited your mother’s womb while showering the whole room in golden light.”

“What?” Phil exclaimed. He knew Carly had been the midwife at his birth but they’d never talked much about it.

“You came out glowing so damn brightly, I thought you were just… I don’t know strong. How stupid that I never considered you might be _the light!_ I need to sit down.”

And she did and looked like someone had punched her in the gut.

“But you grew out of it. You stopped glowing when you were like five. You seem normal now,” Carly muttered to herself.

“Well…” Phil drew out and looked over to Dan for permission to tell her.

Dan shook his head violently. He didn’t want anyone to know that he was really a soul snatcher posing as a human. It was their secret and not something he wanted other people to know, no matter how much Phil trusted Carly.

Phil sighed but shot Dan a glance to reassure him.

“I had a run-in with a soul snatcher back then,” Phil said, his voice small. “Something happened and I stopped having glowing skin and ginger blond hair. But the light inside of me feel just as strong as when I was younger.”

Carly jumped out of her seat mouth hanging open. “What? You walked away from a soul snatcher?”

Her voice was so high pitch that Dan jumped to cover his ears. He knew they shouldn’t have told that to anyone. Even if Phil had left Dan out of it, Dan knew it must be something extremely rare to happen. It almost hadn’t and the thought made Dan’s stomach turn. He’d been so close to killing the person he now cared for more than anything.

“Yeah?” Phil said, trying to keep his tone casual, as he scratched the back of his head. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“People don’t walk away from soul snatchers, Philip Lester! If they get you into their claws, you’re done. They never let go of a prey.”

Dan gulped and wanted to sink into the floorboards.

“I don’t think it matters,” Dan tried to interrupt. “Phil has always been special. You said so yourself. That doesn’t mean I’ll let those coven people take him away.”

“No offence, Dan. I know you and Phil are really close but this is not your decision. In fact, I’m surprised Phil has shared this much with you.”

The verbal blow made Dan physically flinch.

“Carly,” Phil voice was lathed with warning. “You don’t speak to Dan like that.”

The tiny woman glanced between them and just shook her head.

“You’re quite the pair, you two. Just be aware that they’ll come knocking eventually. You should maybe heed your friend’s advice, Phil. If you’ve walked away from a soul snatcher, I have little doubt that you are in fact the one they are looking for.”

She left and both of the boys sat down on the sofa next to each other.

“Phil…” Dan’s voice was soft and barely louder than a whisper. “Thank you for not telling her about me. But I still think we should leave.”

“I can’t leave my family. You know that, Dan,” Phil answered.

And Dan did. Phil only really let a handful of people close enough to properly know him. Other than Dan and Carly, he only had his family.

Suddenly, Phil gripped his head and hissed out in pain.

_Magic wielding human, you are requested in the public house immediately by your acting coven. Failure to show will not be tolerated._

The words sounded inside of Phil’s head and they were so loud and demanding that he instantly sprung to his feet.

“Dan, someone just spoke to my mind,” Phil sounded scared and Dan didn’t hesitate before wrapping and arm around him. “They’re gathering all magic humans at the pub. I have to go. It’s like a pull within me. I don’t think I’ll be able to stop from going.”

Dan visibly swallowed and Phil hated how his gorgeous eyes became clouded with worry.

“Fine,” Dan said, nodding forcefully as if it would help the turmoil inside of him. “We go.”

“We?” Phil asked.

“You’re the one who said I was magic,” Dan said and nudged Phil with his shoulder. “Besides, there’s no way I’m letting you go in there alone.”

Fondness swelled in Phil’s chest and he pulled Dan in for a quick but desperate embrace before they walked out together.

Seeing so many familiar faces in the pub was not really a surprise. Phil had always been able to tell who had magic inside of them, though he’d come to learn that it wasn’t a very common ability. Carly wasn’t able to do it and she said that she didn’t know anyone able to do that when Phil had sneakily asked about it without revealing his own abilities.

He kept a lot of things about his light to himself. The only exception was that he shared everything with Dan.

Phil was surprised to see nearly half the population had gathered inside of the pub, filling it to the brim. People where nervous and on edge and every glanced around and pointed and some tried to hide behind bad disguises. Phil could understand why people were on edge, it wasn’t safe to be out but he also felt a glimmer of hope in his chest because if people saw how many of them were present then maybe things could change.

Dan was having more than enough trouble not being overwhelmed by the brightness of all those _glows_ combined. He was so happy he was used to hanging around Phil, who almost matched everyone’s _glow_ together with his single light. Still, it was the least appropriate place for a soul snatcher to be.

Both Dan and Phil sensed the one in charge rather quickly, both of their bodies used to locating sources of magic. He was old, with a long heavy beard and looked like a caricature of a wizard from old children’s books. He was powerful and with one controlled surge of magic, which nearly knocked Dan to the ground, everyone quieted down.

“Hello and welcome, fellow blessed humans. I am the Merlin of Imperium Coven and myself and my constituents have graced your little town with our presence,” the wizard looking man spoke with a deep resounding voice.

Dan and Phil had read about the title Merlin, it was giving to the strongest and most experienced member of the coven.

“No one invited you,” shouted someone from the back. It sounded like the town’s butcher.

“Ah, but I have been invited,” the Merlin argued. “Whoever put the ban around this place keeping soul snatchers away from your children and loved ones.”

Mutters erupted around and many looked surprised. Dan’s blood ran cold. Maybe it had been a mistake joining Phil here. Phil was the _light_ sure but it was Dan’s actions that had blocked attacks from soul snatchers. It was too late to turn back though. Dan knew he wouldn’t be allowed to leave, so instead he took Phil’s hand and let the touch calm his nerves.

“Someone has made sure soul snatchers can’t make it close to your precious town or the exposed vein of magic nearby,” the Merlin continued and many looked completely stunned at all this magic talk.

It was understandable when you’d been raised your whole life not to speak about it and now someone was talking openly in front of half the town.

“You might very well not be aware of your magical history, but every century a person is born with more than the small spark majority of you have. They come out glowing and gleaming and they are the most powerful source of controlled magic. We’ve all been overdue one for a while and I have my suspicions the person must be responsible for your impenetrable defences. Though, I’m surprised you’ve been able to hide this long, _light_ , in such a hostile world as this.”

Phil flinched when he was spoken directly to.

“I would think that you might have been killed as an infant but such an extensive ban is not the work of a toddler. It has not been seen before and thus you must be both very capable and good at hiding.”

The Merlin stepped down from the podium for the musicians and began walking through the crowd. People grew back, fear flashing in their eyes every time he paused for a beat. No one liked him or the handful of coven members that lingered by the exits.

Dan felt trapped and he almost started hyperventilating. It was a horrible feeling. There were too many people around him and that old man’s voice sounded so threatening and evil and he was looking to take Phil away.

The only thing that stabilised him was Phil’s constant pressure on his hand.

Phil was worried too. He still had Dan’s masking aura though and it had done an amazing job so far. No one had ever looked at him twice. He didn’t look magic. Dan had told him that he’d still been able to see all the power underneath the cloak but only because he knew what he was looking for and he was the one who had hid it.

The Merlin moved through the crowd and people knocked themselves back against others and the wall. No one wanted to touch the powerful magic man; maybe they had been raised to be scared of magic despite possessing it. The thought felt like a knife twisted in Phil’s heart.

It was so wrong that they had to hide whom they were and that society didn’t accept them just because they were different. They weren’t bad just because someone without the abilities didn’t understand them. It was creating scared and tormented souls and Phil just wanted everyone to be free.

Maybe if he were indeed the light, he would be able to do something about it. Maybe he didn’t have to hide. He looked sideways at Dan, whose eyes had glazed over and he looked critically unwell.

Phil tried to talk to him in whispers, reassuring him everything would be okay. Phil wouldn’t be able to leave Dan. They couldn’t come out until they both were ready. They’d become each other’s most important person and you didn’t make a life altering decision without consulting your other half.

The Merlin drew nearer and nearer and Phil wished he knew how to turn invisible. His light was instinctual but he knew if he even could manage to make himself and maybe even Dan invisible, it would draw attention to them in this room of too many curious eyes.

The townspeople were shooting glances at each other, looking like they were trying to figure this out.

Dan was seeing spots in front of his eyes and it was only becoming worse as the Merlin came closer to them. There was something completely off about the man and it was turning Dan’s insides inside out.

“Dan,” Phil whispered in his ear, fingers still squeezing tightly around his hand. “Dan, what’s wrong?”

Dan didn’t get a chance to answer because the Merlin was in front of him and he looked intrigued. Dan wanted to hiss and throw himself in the face of the man, who wanted to take Phil away. He wanted to rip his soul out, desperately and hungrily, and the emotion that had once been familiar was foreign after docile years with Phil.

“What do we have here?” the Merlin asked and Dan was sure he’d seen through Phil’s disguise.

Phil was about to open his mouth when he saw that the Merlin’s gaze didn’t settle on him but on Dan. Upon realising, Phil promptly put himself in front of Dan to block him from view. It was an instinctive action rather than a conscious one.

Dan could breathe a little easier as Phil stood in front of him and Dan rested his head on Phil’s study shoulder and Dan found his fingers now tangling themselves in the back of Phil’s shirt.

“Quite a curious friend you have there,” the Merlin spoke to Phil, who was scared of saying anything directly to the man in fear that it might somehow reveal who he was, but the man was looking at Dan with intriguing and calculating eyes and Phil didn’t like it one bit.

“He’s been feeling poorly all day,” Phil lied. “We didn’t plan on being summoned to a magical party.”

Gasps from several people close enough to hear ensued.

The Merlin didn’t say anything, he was still just staring at Dan, who all but hid behind Phil. Phil saw the realisation in the old man’s eyes though, pure surprise that then morphed into disgust.

Phil was utterly confused how him being the light could compel disgust to the elder’s face but he quickly realised he’d read the realisation wrong. He hadn’t figured out who Phil was. He’d figured out who Dan was.

“Soul snatcher!”

The word rang out and everyone fell silent and the people around Dan and Phil scrambled to get as far away as they possibly could in the crowded room. Phil’s blood had run completely cold. Dan’s otherwise strained and heavy breath against his back had stopped as well.

Phil thought about teleporting out of here but he’d never been too successful in bringing Dan along. They’d tried a couple of times when Phil had insisted but Dan was always a bit apprehensive about magic after touching it had turned him into a soulless monster.

Phil could flee but there was no way he was leaving Dan’s side.

The Merlin pulled out a necklace with a heavy stone pendant that was entirely black as soon as the held it out Dan fell to the floor and Phil instantly crouched down and wrapped his arms around the boy, who was now shaking and screaming.

“What are you doing?” Phil exclaimed, anger bubbling in his chest as he gridded his teeth. “Get that away!”

“How is it possible?” the Merlin continued without regarding Phil’s words one bit. The calculating look was back in the old man’s eyes and it made chills run down Phil’s back. “A soul snatcher camouflaged as a human? This must be a first in history. Brothers and sisters, you’re witnessing history here!”

The Merlin was right, of course. The reveal of a humanlike soul snatcher would go down in history but because of the journey between the two boys. What he was thinking of in that moment was how he would be named the one to discover a new mutation.

“He’s not!” Phil shouted, refusing to remove his arms from Dan’s shaking body, even as the other coven members stepped up.

Some people saw that as their opportunity to flee the scene but most stayed, entirely transfixed on what was unfolding before their very eyes. Phil desperately wished that they didn’t have an audience and he had some means of escape for him and Dan.

“Get up, puny magic,” the Merlin scoffed at Phil and the insult hurt. He clearly thought that Phil wasn’t powerful, because he was using the slag for magic humans, who got rejected from covens back in the day because they didn’t possess enough power.

“No,” Phil said sternly. “You get away from him. His name is Dan Howell and he’s my best friend.”

The Merlin laughed and the tone made feel like Phil was being ridiculed.

“You’ve clearly fallen under the creature’s spell or something, stupid boy,” the Merlin said and suddenly Dan sprung to his feet.

Since the Merlin walked up to them, Dan hadn’t been able to breathe and everything in his body hurt. It was the same reaction when Phil had first touched him and when he’d woken up from his long rest but only enhanced tenfold. Everything felt like it was shutting down within him but he heard the insult against Phil.

No one got to talk to Phil that way.

He stumbled to his feet but Phil’s arms remained around him, keeping him from launching at the old pompous arse, who dared to insult his wonderful Phil.

“Do you speak like that,” Dan growled.

Phil was so surprised that Dan had even managed to stand up with how much his body was shaking, let alone being able to speak. Only Phil had wished that he hadn’t because his eyes flashed dark and soulless as he spoke.

Phil hadn’t seen those eyes for nearly twenty years but they were just the same as back then. They were terrifying but so sad and hopeless. They were nothing like the wonderful brown ones that Phil had come to adore.

“See what you’re trying to protect, boy? That creature is one step away from consuming you. Seize him!” the Merlin ordered and it all happened so fast.

Dan felt something clamp around his wrists and instantly felt drowsy. He was being pulled forward by a force rather than hands and he looked back to see Phil’s utter horror at the whole thing.

This was enough. Phil had had it with this coven coming in here and thinking they could take Dan. Phil could tell them about how Dan was the one who had protected their little town and how they owed the lack of lost souls to the very creature that was supposed to hunt them.

Dan went against his nature every single day and Phil was done with people treating him like crap.

He used his own magic to grip onto Dan’s body, which was being pulled away by two of the coven members. Dan’s body convulsed in the air for a moment before it practically shot into Phil’s arms, as he secured them around his best friend.

Dan felt his course change and he was back inside of Phil’s arms, which had always been a safe space but the shackles around his wrists burned.

Phil tried to pry the shackles from Dan’s hands with magic but it was like there was a protection on them.

“Release him immediately,” Phil demanded to the Merlin, who had now turned his calculating eyes towards Phil.

“You’re packing quite the punch, young one. Maybe I underestimated you. But you will not get those off. They are mine and will only respond to me. I’m taking this soul snatcher with me. He’s to be starved until he ceases to exist. However, I do think I’ll have enjoy dissecting his camouflage abilities during and after.”

Phil wanted to shout that starving Dan wouldn’t work. Dan wouldn’t die. He’d tried to kill himself back before Phil found him. However, he kept quiet because he didn’t want to give the coven leader any more information.

He did recall one thing that might just work if the old scroll had been correct about the gravity of calling upon a challenge.

“I challenge you to a improbability magic duel,” Phil said and he saw all the coven members and a few townspeople flinch. “I can prove to you that Dan is not a soul snatcher, he’s human and magic. If I succeed you have to leave us alone for however long we shall live.”

The Merlin had looked disgruntled before but now he looked down right angry.

“How dare you challenge me to a magical duel? Do you even realise the forces you’re calling upon? You have to pose an improbably use of magic that I agree will not succeed and then against the word of a _Merlin_ be proven right anyway. Hardly no one ever succeeds.”

Phil was smirking up at the Merlin. He didn’t know if he could actually prove that Dan was human because Phil knew technically he’d lost that when he’d touched the exposed vein of magic all those years ago.

But he’d lived with Dan for so long and the boy was human in Phil’s eyes. His light told him to stand up for Dan, no matter the cost.

“And if you fail, you’ll have your glow removed,” the Merlin added.

Phil gulped but he felt the heavy weight of a half-unconscious and in-pain Dan in his arms and thus, his mind had already been made up.

“I’m aware, now release Dan from these shackles.”

“I still have to accept your challenge, boy,” the Merlin continued.

Phil knew he wouldn’t be able to turn down a legit challenge like the one Phil had posed. It was so improbably it could almost be considered impossible. Still, the Merlin pretended to ponder his answer.

“I accept. You say that that thing in your arms is human and magic. I say that it’s a soul snatcher, who should be put down,” the Merlin finally agreed and with a flick of his wrist the shackles around Dan’s wrists disappeared.

“Come on, Dan,” Phil said patiently to Dan, who seemed more awake now. “We have to go to the exposed vein,” he told the coven members.

“The exposed vein?”

“That’s not safe!”

“Stop whining,” Phil bit at the coven members. “You said so yourself that your damn light or whatever has protected this whole area. And either way, I find it a bit concerning powerful coven members are scared of soul snatchers.”

“You do realise that the stronger the _glow_ inside of a human the more soul snatchers they attract? And the more you spur them to attack?” the Merlin commented while he gestured for Phil to head out of the door.

Phil hadn’t actually known that. Dan probably did but Dan didn’t much like talking about the souls he’d taken or how he’d used to hunt. He was guilty about it and having been granted his humanity again had made him feel a buck load of guilt that had never occurred to his soulless self.

“Phil, where are we going?” Dan asked as he came to.

He felt like he’s blacked out or something but he was walking with his arm around Phil’s shoulder rather than being shackled to some coven member so he supposed it could have gone worse.

Only all of the coven members and a few nosy townspeople were trailing after them.

“We’re going to visit the vein,” Phil said calmly and Dan didn’t like that calm tone at all.

It was one he put on when he was scared or nervous and trying to keep it together.

“Why? Phil, we can’t go there. You know I don’t like it,” Dan said and he felt small. He was beyond exhausted and that black stone and the drowsing shackles had really done a number on his head.

“I challenged the Merlin to a improbability duel,” Phil said, his face solemn.

“Wait, like the ones we read about? Was it a real thing? Wait… Phil… what about the consequence? You can’t give up your light!” Dan was talking so fast that he doubted Phil would be able to make sense of it. “Phil, what did you say? Something about me, right? Phil, tell me!”

Phil sighed and Dan already knew he wouldn’t like his answer. They were at the entrance of the forest now and it wouldn’t be long before they’d arrive where the two of them had met of the first time.

Dan hadn’t been here since. Phil had occasionally but Dan had decided that he never wanted to go near that thing again. Not only did it remind him of hunting and hurting innocent souls, it also brought back all the pain and memories connected to his transformation, which was so much more painful with access to a full spectrum of emotions.

“I told them that I could prove that you’re human and magic, Dan.”

“WHAT?”

“Don’t worry,” Phil urged him, and gave his waist a squeeze. He’d practically had to carry him out of the pub but Dan was walking more steadily now. Phil still couldn’t make himself let go.

“You can’t do this, Phil. You know very well what happened to me. And even that wasn’t enough, you know damn well that I wasn’t magic before, hence why I ended up like that.”

“We’re doing this and it’s final, Dan,” Phil said and brought them to a halt in front of the giant tree root curving up from the ground and the slither in it, revealing glimmering glow.

Dan hadn’t even been able to feel them getting closer, his senses so drained and his focus on demanding answer from his friend. Phil had doomed himself to save Dan. It felt eerily familiar and of course, it had to go down here.

“I didn’t sacrifice myself so that you should do this for me two decade later, you spork,” Dan said and pushed away from Phil, standing on his own for the first time since they walked out the pub. He instantly missed Phil’s arms around him.

Phil touched calmed him and kept the bad things away but Dan was also stubborn and he wouldn’t cower to Phil when he was so mad at him.

“So, puny magic and camouflaged soulless, you’ve made quite the spectacle,” the Merlin told them and fanned his hand out to the audience gathered.

Phil wanted to tell them all to piss off, especially the townspeople. Everyone now knew he had light and he was just about to reveal how much. He spotted so many familiar faces in the crowd but when he came to Carly’s, he stopped.

He’d not realised that she’d be here but he should have known.

Surprisingly, she gave him an encouraging smile and determined nod. She looked like she had completely faith in him.

“Phil, you can still back out,” Dan said upon looking at the crowd. He saw their disgust and he tried not to let it hurt. He’d been bad before and he deserved this.

Phil took a moment to find Dan’s eyes with his own and held eye contact.

“I’d never back out on you, Dan,” Phil told him, voice certain and firm.

If anything, this had taught him just how far he’d go to protect Dan. However, Dan had made a very similar sacrifice when they’d only just met and Phil was just a child-sized meal.

“I’ll prove that Dan is a magic human by having him touch the exposed vein without containing damage,” Phil declared to the gathering and he heard the Merlin snicker.

“Phil!” Dan hissed.

Soul snatchers couldn’t touch an exposed pure from of magic. Dan had tried out of curiosity back when he was soulless and practical about things and his hands had refused. It was the touch that had made them, so it was likely also the touch that could destroy them and then there would be nothing left.

“You’ll be alright,” Phil said and reached up to cup Dan’s cheeks. “I promise, we’ll be okay. Trust my light. I always have and it has always guided me towards you.”

Phil was being overly sappy and if Dan’s hadn’t feared for both of their lives at the current moment he’d have punched him.

Phil had always had unwavering faith in that mysterious glowing thing that no one could quite explain. Dan had always been fascinated by it but secretly terrified, it was a wonder he’d even mustered up the courage to touch it originally.

Phil let go of Dan’s face and interlocked their hands, his right and Dan’s left.

Dan let out a deep breath and let the feeling of their palms pressed together wash over him.

“If we succeed, you leave us alone for ever,” Phil called back at the Merlin. “No loopholes. I’ve got enough witnesses and you’ve got your coven code of honour.”

“Boy, that soul snatcher is about to be pulverised in your hand and your weak powers will mean you end up in a coma for a month and then have your glow stripped but by all means, go ahead. I keep my promises,” the Merlin said.

There was chatter amongst the coven members and townspeople but none of the boys were listening anymore. Of course, they were beyond scared, more so for the wellbeing of the other than themselves.

“Who are we?” Phil asked, rephrasing the very first thing he’d ever said to Dan.

Phil hadn’t remembered but Dan had told him some time in the last couple of years and Phil trusted Dan to have remembered accurately.

“A light and his soul snatcher,” Dan replied with humour in his voice. It was an inside joke, something they only said inside the walls of their place.

“Not for much longer,” Phil said and stepped up to the vein and placed his hand just above it, hovering as he waited for Dan to do the same.

Dan gulped and moved his free hand closer. He expected the magic pulse to push him back, to reject him for the monster he was but it didn’t happen. He placed it floating in the air next to Phil’s.

Blue eyes found brown ones and with reassuring nods and encouraging smiles, they both lowered their hands.

Phil had never touch a pure vein of magic before but it didn’t sting or burn like he’d read about in the scrolls. It felt like coming home. It was a warm feeling that washed through all of his body, welcoming the contact. Phil thought of Dan and how much he loved all the little quirks of his personality and the way blood flushed to his cheek and made an almost permanent rosy patch on his cheek. He loved all the things that made Dan a human.

Dan expected the excruciating pain, a repeat of the first time he touched an exposed vein and he was prepared as it came. He was ready to lose all of himself but then the pain lessened and very familiar hum sounded in his ears instead. It was Phil’s light, the _glow_ of an actual _light_ – not that there was much doubt anymore – that coursed through his body instead. He’d recognise that particular strain of _glow_ anywhere.

Neither knew how long they stood there, frozen while the magic flowed through their bodies unabashedly. It was an exhilarating experience and Phil kept thinking of protecting Dan while Dan kept thinking of protecting Phil.

Phil had to make this work or they’d take Dan away. Dan had to make this work or Phil would lose his powers.

Suddenly, the vein sparked and sent the two boys flying back. Somehow, they managed not to break the hold on each other’s hand but they were currently squeezing so hard that nothing could break them apart.

Both their chest heaved with exhaustion but they felt… good. Phil felt his light present and seeming stronger than ever and all the pain that Dan had gotten used to was no longer inside of him. Instead, he just felt warm.

“It’s not possible,” the Merlin uttered in complete disbelief. “You cannot be…”

The Merlin walked up to them and yanked them to their feet. Either was too tired to protest.

He was glancing into Dan’s face, who looked like it normally did, except the slivers of gold in his eyes were no more. His face was still squishy and his hair still wavy and brown and his eyes brown rather than black pits.

But he felt more human than he ever had before.

Phil was beaming next to him, so utterly happy that the light inside of him felt like it was going a victory dance. Phil’s entire body began to glow, as the magic needed to seep out.

The Merlin jumped back from them and his mouth dropped in awe.

“No, it can’t be… You?”

“I told you not to say those things to him,” Dan said, feeling happy and cocky because Phil had actually did it.

He’d laid it all down on the line for Dan and he had so much more to lose than when Dan first had made the gesture. His had been partly selfish but Phil was so selfless and Dan could only hope that some of that had seeped over into him along with some of Phil’s light.

“You’re the _light_?” The Merlin said.

Now that earned gasp from the entire audience and the coven members swiftly fell to their knees and some of the townspeople followed suit, not Carly but Phil hadn’t expected his midwife to bow down to him. Frankly, he didn’t quite like that people were bowing at all.

The Merlin shook his head but then smiled smugly.

“You might be the _light_ but he is a soul snatcher and even a _light_ have never been able to reverse the process and grant magic bearing abilities,” the Merlin said and held up the damned black stone.

Dan didn’t feel a thing and took a step forward.

“I’m not a soul snatcher, not any more. Phil got me back,” Dan said and tried to imitate the flick of his hand that he’d seen Phil do so many times around their home.

He’d just meant to send the necklace flying but unfortunately the Merlin went along as well.

“Oops?” Dan said, not really putting sincere regret into his words.

“We might need to work on your finesse a bit,” Phil said and laughed and it was the most wonderful sound that Dan had ever heard.

“We won,” Phil said to the Merlin, who was picking himself up from the ground. “You leave us alone.”

“But you’re the _light_ , you have to lead, you have all these abilities, you have responsibilities, you can’t turn your back on them!” the Merlin argued.

“Then you should have known better than to agree to let me off the hook. It’s not my fault that a soul snatcher’s masking aura completely fooled you,” Phil said and then turned to the townspeople. “I hope you all know that this doesn’t change anything. I’m still awkward and clumsy Phil. I just have a light inside of me but so do all of you. So many have hidden their abilities and I see how it’s slowly killing you. Maybe it’s time this town embraced it rather than hid it away.”

Dan gave Phil’s hand a squeeze and then they were suddenly standing in their living room back home.

“Wait, what?” Dan said and put a hand against his head. “My world is spinning.”

Phil chuckled and pulled Dan into an embrace. “I think you just accidentally teleported us home.”

“Huh? My newfound _glow_ but be able to read my thoughts or something because I was just thinking about how nice it would be to home and away from all those people.”

“You’ll get the hang of it eventually. But it’s my light and it’s had quite a while to get used to you, so I think you’ll be a quick study.”

Phil pulled Dan in closer and Dan let him.

Dan had always been a bit scared about getting too close to Phil. He would hold hands and hug but he’d never fully trusted himself to get out around Phil in the fear that something inside of him would snap and Phil’s beautiful soul would be no more.

“I can’t believe everybody know now,” Dan said and clenched his fists into the sides of Phil’s shirt.

“They would have found out eventually. Maybe our town can be the first entirely pro-magic town and it’ll inspire others,” Phil ponders.

“I think technically you’re supposed to be the leader of all magic folk now that we’ve confirmed you’re the most powerful man in a whole century, Phil.”

“Yeah, maybe we’ll get around to it,” Phil said and leaned into Dan’s touch. “For now, I just want everything to quiet down and to appreciate that you’re still here and you feel so human. You’re no longer in pain.”

Dan nuzzled into Phil’s touch.

“I might technically have been in chronic physical pain, Phil, but I’ve never hurt since you came and found me that second time in the forest. You made living, whatever kind of living it was, a whole lot better.”

“I’m glad but you’re human again now, Dan. You’ve got a second chance to do all the things you never got to do before magic accidentally corrupted you. It apologises by the way,” Phil said.

“What? The magic?”

“Yeah, it can’t help its properties. Only certain types of people are granted the ability to touch it because some individuals would misuse it.”

“You think that’s why I couldn’t touch it before?” Dan asked, his voice vulnerable and small. It was something he’d thought about for a while.

“I couldn’t see how you would misuse it, Dan,” Phil responded; always ready to defend him, even against himself.

“No, I just mean… you really didn’t know me before, Phil. I’ve changed a lot. Becoming soul snatcher changed me and you certainly changed me as well.”

“Hmm…” Phil hummed and tightened his grip around Dan. “Maybe that’s why I could transfer my light to you now. You are worthy to touch it.”

“Honestly, I don’t give a damn about being able to touch the magic.”

Phil furrowed his brows and pulled back enough to look at Dan’s face. Dan who’d grown up obsessed with magic and gone to great length to research it both as a teenager and again as a reformed soul snatcher.

“I just want to be able to touch you,” Dan said, cheeks scrunched up with happiness.

Phil smiled back with an equally smitten grin and leaned closer.

The secret behind how a _light_ and a soul snatcher achieved the impossible all comes down to the pure, genuine and unbreakable bond they created along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Argh!! What did you think? That's the main story done and only the epilogue remains. However, I'm thinking of maybe doing some bonus scenes from what takes place in-between part 2 and 3. Would anyone like to see that? The epilogue will be uploaded on Wednesday. 
> 
> Find more of my stories under my profile or at https://www.wattpad.com/SecretNRB & http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. Come talk to me @natigail on Tumblr or use the comment section below.


	5. Epilogue: The Accomplishments Of Light No. 2,009

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So many lights before Phil were powerful, influential and history makers but Phil's actions were unprecedented and his story unique because of the soul snatcher he embraced. This is their accomplishments.

**The accomplishments of _light_ no. 2,009**

Philip Michael Lester went down in _light_ history and with all he achieved through his lifetime; many consider him the most influential _light_ to date. His first famous act, which would remain the one he was best known for despite all the great things that followed, was that he'd managed to survive a soul snatcher attack at the age of five. It had been unheard of until this point and thought virtually impossible. In the years to come, the tale of the bright _light_ "defeating" a soul snatcher when he was just a small child would be passed around like folklore. With time, Phil's achievements would fade in the conscious of the general population but some would remember him.

While surviving the soul snatcher attack was incredible and unprecedented, the years that followed the reunion of Phil and said soul snatcher was in reality the more incredible part. Phil actually befriended the soul snatcher, formerly known as Dan Howell when he'd been just a foolish young boy tampering with magic he didn't understand like many others like him. They were very private people and no one other than the two of them knew the true story of how they reunited and became so close. No one even knew Dan existed until a coven passed through Phil's hometown and called out all the magic-wielding humans in search of the next _light_. One must remember that at the time, magical humans were in hiding and covens had been dismantled for years with the exception of the imperial coven, which had persevered. Dramatically, Dan's true identity as a soul snatcher was revealed to the population, though they had not been able to tell by the sight of him. See, one thing that we do know about Dan and Phil was the fact that they rubbed off on each other; one's _glow_ and the other's masking aura had mixed and dulled and hid away the true forms of both individuals.

At the time, no one understood how Phil could have invited a soul eating monster to live with him but Phil defended his friend dearly, even going as far as saying he'd prove Dan's innocence in exchange for peace and privacy. It is these events that lead to the path that Phil really should be remembered for. He managed yet another impossible: he made a pure vein of magic hand back Dan's soul and revert him into a human being again, not one masquerading as one. Only a small handful of people were present to witness this unbelievable feat but it was said to be magnificent.

The imperial coven had no choice but honour their promise, though their leader was dethroned for having challenged a _light_ and consequently made them lose the ability to enlist him. Most _lights_ , when covens had been an open constitution, had freely joined, though a few would rebel only to be coerced into joining by calling on old magic. A promise made with magic, however, trumped this and Phil would never be forced into joining.

However, privacy for the general public was something the duo never got. Word spread like wildfire of the soul snatcher turned human living with this century’s _light_. They had to deal with a lot of backlash and retreated from the public eye for a year. What they did in this time is never documented in the history books but many had speculations. What we do know is that when they stepped back into the limelight, it was with a new mission and a wish to end the hatred towards magic and those who possessed it.

Together they started a project to properly stop the soul snatchers. Phil was never able to restore another soul snatcher's soul and humanity, further fuelling the speculation that Dan had been far from an ordinary one, but Phil's pure _light_ magic was deeply connected to the Earth's veins more than others had been. _Lights_ had always been on good terms with the magic veins but Phil had been bargaining with the old force of nature when he restored Dan and he was able to do it yet again.

It took years, of Phil working together with Dan, until soul snatchers ceased to exist entirely. The two of them travelled far and wide and went around locating veins of magic, Dan supposedly having the strongest locating powers ever seen before. Phil put up barriers, shielding off the veins from touch. The barriers could only be walked through if one already had a _glow_ inside of them. Slowly but surely, the two of them solved a problem that one never thought that Earth would be rid off.

After their years of work, they disappeared completely. Through their journey, they'd advocated what they were in the process of doing and tried to enlighten people on all the history that had been disregarded and forgotten. It was a gradual process but public opinion slowly started to swift in favour of magic. There were struggles and protests and loss but once they closed up the that last vein covens were being formed again and magic children were allowed to show their abilities without fear of being killed.

Despite a wish of privacy, the pair of them collected quite the following and at their final barrier setting, a rather large crowd had gathered when they finished.

Those who were present say that it was a tender and intimate moment. Love and heart eyes were said to have been exchanged between the two as well as happy proud smiles. They had done it all on their own and Phil had never been forced into leading the imperial coven, though not for a lack of trying. People had wanted Dan dead initially when they had heard what he had been and what he had done as a soulless creature but Phil was there to block every attempt. He defended Dan fiercely and no one dare question a _light_. They had both remained free with their integrity intact. They did not exchange words with the anticipant crowd but they smiled kindly and happily. The last public record of their words somehow said it all.

"Hey Phil?" Dan had addressed the man beside him but spoken loud enough for the crowd to hear.

"Yeah?" Phil had said in response and turned his full attention the man, who was always at his side.

"Let's go home."

No one ever got to know where home was for the famous duo, most likely due to Phil's skilled masking magic. They had friends and family but they put the whole public aspect behind them after years of service. They were world famous by the time they finished but they refused to speak about it or share their personal stories, which meant that the hype eventually dropped. It would only take another couple of decades and then people would have forgotten about soul snatchers and the terror they had stuck in people for the centuries they had roamed and harmed the most vulnerable. Children with magic grew up carefree and people started to believe that barriers had always been set around exposed veins of magic, like a safety guard made by nature itself rather than a brave and determined _light_ with an ex-soul snatcher at his side. Dan and Phil's story of how they met became a fairy-tale, often talked about but not understood as the reality it had been. Fictional monsters were not new to humanity after all and many found it difficult to understand that a creature such as a soul snatcher could even have existed after the extinction.

During the time of their adventures and worldwide project, many speculated whether they two of them were best friends and roommates or something more. They were thinking merely romantic entanglements but they did not understand the depth and complexity of the bond formed between the two of them. The term soulmate was common language but not many knew that it was a concept that had been real and it would sometimes, though rarely, become a reality. It was not a pre-destined thing as many, who used the term causally seemed to think. It was more so a soul bond and it was one that could only be formed over time. The souls would be compatible yes, but only with shared experience, trust, honesty and love it could turn into a proper bonding of the souls and make two individual souls become soulmates.

It was a much deeper connection than just best friends or just lovers. It took work and commitment to achieve but once the individuals were bonded, it was unlikely anything could separate them. Dan and Phil were an unlikely pairing, prey and predator when they first met and one pure and the other broken when they met for a second time. However, they were both looking for something that they found in each other.

Phil might the brightest _light_ to ever exist but he always pulled Dan along by his side and would relentlessly insist that they were a team and they couldn't have done it without the other when people wanted to only praise him. Dan centred Phil in a way only the _light_ himself knew.

Phil's mother was approached many times after it became revealed that her son was that century's _light_ and he suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth after finishing with the barriers. She didn't like to say much and respected their privacy but one quote from her would be enough to piece together the general gist of the relationship between Dan and Phil and support the possibility of them being actual magical soulmates.

"Just let Phil be. He's done now. He deserves peace and laying his head to rest on the shoulder of his home."

Home to Phil, it would seem, had never been a place, not his family house, not his first place shared with Dan, not his hometown. Rather it was the arms of someone who'd walked into his life and never let go.

So many _lights_ before him were powerful, influential and history makers but none had ever done what Phil managed. He had survived an attack of a soul snatcher and later restored its soul, eradicated soul snatchers as a species, protected non-magic humans from accidentally turning themselves, indirectly allowed for the covens to form anew, stopped the war that had been on the brink of happening and made it so magic humans didn't need to fear themselves and hide away.

He'd not done it alone though. Perhaps that was the real reason behind his success. He'd not been a lone _light_ pushing everyone away, like so many before him when they became overwhelmed with their powers and the responsibilities that came along with them. He'd embraced a lost soul, who in turn had protected him fiercely. He was part of a team and you can never talk about Philip Michael Lester, the magnificent _light_ , without mentioning Dan James Howell, the only human to have become a soul snatcher and later regain his soul.

Normally, this entry would just be the story of a powerful _light_ but it turned into the story of a _light_ and his soul snatcher turned human because one would not have been without the other. Dan had not snatched Phil's soul when they first met but he'd stolen its affection over time. Once he got his own back years later, Phil had done the same to his. It would appear that Dan, the soul snatcher, got the brightest soul in the century in the end anyway.

The true nature of the relationship would always be left to speculations but one thing was for sure: the world was a better place because they had found each other and all the actions they took and choices they had made as a result of getting to know each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? I'm so happy with how this story turned out and I feel like this epilogue nicely wraps it all up. We started the story by looking back in history and now we're ending it by glimpsing forward. I'd love to hear any thoughts about this story.
> 
> Find more of my stories under my profile or at https://www.wattpad.com/SecretNRB & http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. Come talk to me @natigail on Tumblr or use the comment section below.


	6. A/N: Read more bonus scenes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't just lay this story to rest, especially not after all the lovely feedback I've gotten since I posted it. So I've decided to write ten bonus chapters (which will probably end up being longer in word count because I have no self-control). I like the structure of this work though, so I've decided to add them in a new story. But I'll post the chronological order of them here incase anyone would want that. Originally, I was worried about making the story too long and complex, as in I wouldn't be able to finish it before burning out but in true Nina fashion, I had to come back to make it long and complex again. Whoops. I hope none of you mind more content.

Prologue: The Universe & Folklore **POSTED**

Bonus 1: The Lonely Teen Who Touched Magic **POSTED**

Part 1: The Child Who Said Light **POSTED**

Bonus 2: The _Light_ Who Lost His Shine  **POSTED**

Part 2: The Soul Snatcher Healed By Magic  **POSTED**

Bonus 3: The Friend Who Didn’t Give Up  **POSTED**

Bonus 4: The Soul Snatcher Who Was Denied Its Meal  **POSTED**

Bonus 5: The Best Friend Who Restored His Faith  **POSTED**

Bonus 6: The Family Meets The Reformed Soul Snatcher  **POSTED**

Part 3: The Reformed Soul Snatcher & The Prodigal Light  **POSTED**

Bonus 7: The Partners Who Had To Decide  **POSTED**

Bonus 8: The Exposed Vein Of Magic That Had To Be Closed **POSTED**

Bonus 9: The Unconventional Way To Find New Family Members  **WRITTEN and will be posted on the 30th of August**

Bonus 9: The Reunion Of A Damaged Family

Epilogue: The Accomplishments of Light No. 2,009 **POSTED**

Bonus 10: The Soulmates Who Grew Old Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have anything you were missing from the main story, let me know and I might be able to incorporate it in the bonus pieces that have yet to be written. I hope some of you are as excited as I am to get more of this story. 
> 
> Maybe you are all done with it and you don't want anymore but I just had to keep writing because I know all of these scenes won't leave me alone until I make them. Hopefully, I'll be able to let go of the characters after another 25,000+ words about them. (Seriously, I've only written half of the planned bonus scenes and the word count for 5 is already on 19,000 or something). 
> 
> I'd love to hear any and all thoughts on this and a massive thank you to everybody, who've read the whole story through and all the lovely people who've left kudos and comments - it means more than you realise. 
> 
> Use the comment section or shoot me an ask or message on tumblr @natigail if you want to let me know how you feel about this reveal? Thank you in advance.


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